The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art

The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art
by Linda Schele, Mary Ellen Miller

The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art
List Price: $39.95
Our Price: $26.02
You Save: $13.93 (35%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $14.17 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Linda Schele, Mary Ellen Miller
Photographer: Justin Kerr
Preface: Michael D. Coe
Foreword: Emily J. Sano
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-04-17
ISBN: 0807612782
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: George Braziller Inc.

Book Reviews of The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art

Book Review: Understanding the Ooze of LIfe
Summary: 5 Stars

The Blood of Kings by Linda Schele and MAry Ellen Miller was written on the occasion of the Kimbell Art Mesuem's exhibition of Maya Art in 1986. The hope was to draw attention to the rich legacy of Maya art along with a book that would give texture to these artistic recordings of the singificant ritual events in the lives of the Maya. What better way, since art has been our keyhole to understanding the magnificance of there thought, language, science and culture? Schele and Miller do an incredble job of focusing on these artifacts to bring us inside the current understanding of what th experts perceive the maya ritual and life to be about-- including the deciperment of the syllables of the maya language.

The book begins with a history of the road to understanding the Maya culture, complete with its meadering and diversions. This "age" delights in knowing that the Maya are filled with blood, both their own in bloodletting and those of captives that they sacrifice, unlike previous interpretations of a more peaceful existence. Blood, the ooze of life, was offered to eh gods in hopres that they would continue to give their ooze of sap, rain and other life-sustaining things. The book is based on 8 sections of art and interpretation: person, accession rites, courtly life, bloodletting, captives, the ballgame, and death, and the kingship of the Maya Cosmos. Of note as weel is the colors on p.158 where one can get an interpration of what the colors might have been in the Classic period.

In this book Coe prefaces the book commenting on the profound understandng that the world of the Maya is filled with notions of death. But the myth of the Mayas is that the hero twins went to the underworld and by trickery defeated death and those rose to take their place in the Mayan night sky. Perhaps these indiscernible Maya have continued to trick us as well in our attempts to traverse the road of their culture-- and their greatest preoccupation, enscribed on their ceramics and reliefs ---is not death, but life, in all its oozing forms.

Summary of The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art

"[A] work as remarkable for its text as for the photographs and drawings that illustrate it."?Octavio Paz, The New York Review of Books

A comprehensive guide to the Maya which reveals kingship rites, ritual warfare, with a vast array of color plates and drawings. 122 color plates, 300 drawings and 50 black-and-white illustrations

Art History Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Art History Books
Learn to Paint Oil Pastels ImageLearn to Paint Oil Pastels
by Jacqueline Black
HarperCollins; Published: 1993-07-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.91
Oil Painting (Collins Artist's Guides) ImageOil Painting (Collins Artist's Guides)
by ANGELA GAIR (EDITOR)
COLLINS; Published: 1998; Paperback; Book
Collins Artist's Guide: Making Pictures Pb (Artists Guides) ImageCollins Artist's Guide: Making Pictures Pb (Artists Guides)
by Angela Gair
Harpercollins; Published: 1997-07; Paperback; Book
Colour Mixing: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started (Collins Learn to Paint Series) ImageColour Mixing: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started (Collins Learn to Paint Series)
by Judy Martin
HarperCollins UK; Published: 1998-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $699.99
Learn to Draw Dogs Pb ImageLearn to Draw Dogs Pb
by David Brown
Harpercollins; Published: 1996-02-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.95
Garfield Sits Around the House (Garfield (Numbered Paperback)) ImageGarfield Sits Around the House (Garfield (Numbered Paperback))
by Jim Davis
Ballantine Books; Published: 1984-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.99
Sargent's Venice ImageSargent's Venice
by Richard Ormond, Warren Adelson
Yale University Press; Published: 2006-12-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $383.98
Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism ImageFarewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism
by Timothy J. Clark
Yale University Press; Published: 1999-03-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $35.10
Price in other shops: $70.00
Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art ImageBasquiat: A Quick Killing in Art
by Phoebe Hoban
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops: $15.95
The Illustrator in America: 1860-2000 ImageThe Illustrator in America: 1860-2000
by Walt Reed
Collins Design; Published: 2003-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $339.10
Similar Books and other products
An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya ImageAn Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya
by Mary Ellen Miller, Karl Taube
Thames & Hudson; Published: 1997-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.72
Price in other shops: $19.95
Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering The Dynasties of the Ancient Maya ImageChronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering The Dynasties of the Ancient Maya
by Simon Martin, Nikolai Grube
Thames & Hudson; Published: 2008-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.98
Price in other shops: $26.95
The Ancient Maya, 6th Edition ImageThe Ancient Maya, 6th Edition
by Robert Sharer, Loa Traxler
Stanford University Press; Published: 2005-10-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.97
Price in other shops: $37.95
Reading Maya Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Maya Painting and Sculpture ImageReading Maya Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Maya Painting and Sculpture
by Andrea Stone, Marc Zender
Thames & Hudson; Published: 2011-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops: $34.95
Maya Art and Architecture (World of Art) ImageMaya Art and Architecture (World of Art)
by Mary Ellen Miller
Thames & Hudson; Published: 1999-11-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops: $19.95
Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of The Mayan Book of The Dawn of Life and The Glories of Gods and Kings ImagePopol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of The Mayan Book of The Dawn of Life and The Glories of Gods and Kings
Touchstone; Published: 1996-01-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.18
Price in other shops: $16.99
The Maya (Eighth Edition)  (Ancient Peoples and Places) ImageThe Maya (Eighth Edition) (Ancient Peoples and Places)
by Michael D. Coe
Thames & Hudson; Published: 2011-01-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.94
Price in other shops: $26.95
The Code of Kings: The Language of Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs ImageThe Code of Kings: The Language of Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs
by Linda Schele, Peter Mathews, Macduff Everton
Scribner; Published: 1999-06-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops: $22.00
Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path ImageMaya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path
by David Freidel, Linda Schele, Joy Parker
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 1995-02-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.35
Price in other shops: $23.99
A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya ImageA Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya
by David Freidel, Linda Schele
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 1992-01-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.92
Price in other shops: $24.99
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories