Veiled Brightness

Stephen Houston serves as Paul Dupee Family Professor of Social Science at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.Claudia Brittenham holds a Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University and is now a member of the Michigan Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan.Cassandra Mesick is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at Brown University.Alexandre Tokovinine is Research Associate, Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.Christina Warinner is preparing her doctoral dissertation in anthropology at Harvard University.

"What excites me most about this study is what it means to the future of scholarship on Maya art. Insight into the aesthetic, symbolic, and material framework of what is perhaps the most complex visual system of the ancient world has taken a decisive step forward in this book. Because of its tie to language through the writing system, codified nature, continuity with modern cultures, and elaboration on thousands of objects, Maya art has an analytic potential unparalleled in the ancient Americas that we are just beginning to investigate. I therefore welcome this book which attempts to bring color into the equation of what constitutes the Maya aesthetic system." --Andrea Stone, Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

• PrologueChapter One. Seeing Color Sensing ColorTheorizing Color in the WestComparative Theories of ColorColorizing MesoamericaA Book on Maya ColorChapter Two. Naming Color Simplex TermsComplex TermsOrganization of ColorsMaya Color Terms RedWhiteBlackYellowYaxMaya TerminologyChapter Three. Making Color Prime Colorants FeathersFlowersShells SpondylusMother-of-Pearl and PearlStones JadeNonjade GreenstonesObsidianTurquoiseReflective Stones: Pyrite, Hematite, and MicaTranslucent StonesManufactured Colorants DyesPigments and Paints BlacksWhitesReds, Yellows, and BrownsBlues and GreensCeramics: A Special CaseMaking Maya ColorChapter Four. Using Color Approaches and LimitationsThe Preclassic and Early Classic: Colors of the Earth Red, Black, and WhiteThe Late Preclassic: New ColorsThe Early Classic: Tradition and RetrenchmentColor Use in the Preclassic and Early ClassicThe Late Early Classic and the Rise of Maya Blue Experiments in CeramicsThe Invention of Maya BlueArchitectural ColorThe Conservative Colors of DeathColor Use in the Late Early ClassicThe Late Classic: Naturalism and Its Dissenters The Naturalistic RevolutionColor and DimensionRejections of PolychromyColor Use in the Late ClassicThe Terminal Classic: Rupture and ReinventionsThe Postclassic: The Colors of the Gods Early Postclassic: Five Basic ColorsLate Postclassic: The "International Style"The "Blue-and-Black Style"Color ContrastsColor Use in the PostclassicUsing ColorEpilogue: A History of Maya ColorAppendix: Dyes and Organic Colorants of the Maya and AztecsBibliographyIndex