| Object Name: | Teotihuacan frescoes: Tlalocan mural |
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|---|---|---|
| Creation Date: | 100-700 AD | |
| Culture: | Teotihuacan | |
| Site: | Tepantitla-Teotihuacan | |
| Material: | ||
| Repository: | ||
| Image source: | © Dr. Manuel Aguilar | |
| Note: This commentary applies for the following 8 Teotihuacan fresco images. The iconographic motives are shells, human hearts, water deities, birds, plants, human beings in joyful daily life activities, etc. They might also be some kind of pictographic writing. The images are frequently visual puzzles and are far from being simple and easy to read. To figure out what is represented in these images one requires active looking and decoding. These murals suggest that the people of Teotihuacan enjoyed the complex and puzzlelike qualities of their images. Playfulness, cleverness, even humor is suggested by some of the borders of Teotihuacan murals. The artists had the chance to try new and different ideas, while the main figures were more set in traditional forms. Teotihuacan mural painting rarely tell a story. It is a non-narrative art. The images are fragmented and viewers have to put them together. The painted porches were a shady relief from the sun or protection from the rain, and the paintings represented an endless sacred universe of natural bounty. | ||
