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The Fifty-Ninth A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts: Art and Representation in the Ancient New World

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Mary Miller, Yale University. This five-part lecture series offers an overview of pre-Columbian art history, with detailed discussion of time, beauty, and truth in the visual cultures of ancient and colonial Mesoamerica. In this audio podcast of the fifth and final lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on May 16, 2010, art historian and archaeologist Mary Miller argues that 16th-century pictorial documents by indigenous artists offer a lens on the vanishing pre-Columbian world, showing how Mesoamerican visual culture exposed a cultural transformation that texts alone could not convey.

audio

Mary Miller, Yale University. This five-part lecture series offers an overview of pre-Columbian art history, with detailed discussion of time, beauty, and truth in the visual cultures of ancient and colonial Mesoamerica. In this audio podcast of the fourth lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on May 9, 2010, art historian and archaeologist Mary Miller discusses the paradox of truth and deception in the depiction of natural objects in Maya and Aztec art, exploring the pleasures of illusion and the virtue of mimesis when materiality is suspended.

audio

Mary Miller, Yale University. This five-part lecture series offers an overview of pre-Columbian art history, with detailed discussion of time, beauty, and truth in the visual cultures of ancient and colonial Mesoamerica. In this audio podcast of the third lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on May 2, 2010, art historian and archeologist Mary Miller explores the signification and cultural import of beauty in Maya and Aztec aesthetics.

audio

Mary Miller, Yale University. This five-part lecture series offers an overview of pre-Columbian art history, with detailed discussion of time, beauty, and truth in the visual cultures of ancient and colonial Mesoamerica. In this audio podcast of the second lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on April 25, 2010, art historian and archaeologist Mary Miller discusses Maya systems of timekeeping, the most sophisticated in the New World, and explains how Maya art engaged and inflected notions of past, present, and future.

audio

Mary Miller, Yale University. This five-part lecture series offers an overview of pre-Columbian art history, with detailed discussion of time, beauty, and truth in the visual cultures of ancient and colonial Mesoamerica. In this audio podcast of the first lecture, originally delivered at the National Gallery of Art on April 18, 2010, art historian and archaeologist Mary Miller presents a history of the reception of pre-Columbian art from its arrival in Europe in the 16th century to the present day, as new discoveries continually transform the field.