Thus not only did humans wear animal masks, but beings were often depicted as part human, part animal. Humans, animals, plants, earth, water, and sky were all elements of a continuum of being. These cultures had a worldview that, insofar as it can be reconstructed from their art and other evidence, is very different from the complex and compartmentalized philosophies common to industrialized societies.
It is a tribute to the integrity and mastery of these artists that works made for use–albeit in highly ritualized and deeply religious civilizations–retain an enormous, outward-reaching, almost incantatory power when seen outside their original contexts. To look at this art fully and honestly is to see and feel how, even in the aestheticizing and confining glass cases and neutral spaces of a modern museum, the work is constantly projecting its effects outward, into the surrounding space and into the viewer’s space and life. These works cannot be appreciated quietly, passively, for their plastic and formal values alone. This is an art totally at odds with our own tradition of the purely aesthetic object. The mixture of deities and vanquished enemies that cover this figure suggests a ruler who has incorporated into himself a good part of the known world.
The chief’s body is painted in stunningly rich colors with a dense near chaos of additional masks, trophy heads, and abstract forms. A large, rounded body with vestigial legs supports a head wearing a fox mask, crowned by a similar fox mask above. At the bowl’s center the dancer’s body and limbs form vivacious curves, while surrounding the figure is a dense swirl of lines, circles, and featherlike shapes that seem to emanate from it, echoing and expanding its implied movement so that the whole piece vibrates ecstatically, with a complexity akin to that of polyphonic music.įinally, consider a ceramic vessel depicting a seated chieftain in ceremonial dress (Peru, Nazca). The body forms an S, giving the effect of a dynamic entrance from above, with perhaps the hint of a thunderbolt.Įven more spectacular is a ceramic pedestal bowl depicting a dancer wearing a crocodile mask (Panama, Cocle). But the rays’ jagged paths deny the eye a simple journey to some invisible beyond instead the viewer feels the entire space charged with a powerful vibrating energy.Ī similar effect is achieved in three dimensions by a sculpted-stone fire serpent Xiuhcoatl (Mexico, Aztec, Tetzcoco) that lies vertically against a stone block, its tail above its head, its fierce mouth facing the viewer. While the central mask-face stares directly at the viewer, entering, even violating, his space, the rays capture even more attention: each leads the eye outward, beyond the boundaries of the piece and in a slightly different direction, pointing to all the surrounding space except that directly below–which was perhaps not thought of as being in the realm of the sun. At the center of a gold sun mask (Ecuador, La Tolita) is a moderately stern face from three sides of the face shoot out golden zigzag snakelike rays, each much longer than the face is wide at the end of each intact ray (a few are broken) is a human face. The number of days the ability lasts can be increased to a maximum of 9 days by completing five instances of the side quest " Ancient Power." This quest requires locating petrified vampire body parts and infusing the remains' lingering magical essence into the Bloodstone Chalice.Among the many masterpieces on view at the Art Institute’s exhibit of pre-Columbian art, “The Ancient Americas,” four are particularly potent examples of this art’s “cosmic,” outward-reaching aspects. It augments the Vampiric Drain destruction spell to absorb stamina and magicka, as well as health for a number of days. Activating the chalice will grant the ability for one day. It can be gained upon completion of " The Bloodstone Chalice." Once the chalice has been returned to Castle Volkihar, it will sit in the small room to the side of the main hall. This ability can only be obtained by joining Harkon and becoming a Vampire Lord.
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