MEXICO CITY — The Mayas were always the favorite pre-Hispanic people among archeologists, anthropologists and historians. Now Maya culture is winning the same kind of admiration from the public, as hundreds of thousands of visitors view its breathtaking artworks.
Mexican curators have assembled the largest-ever exhibition of Maya art--557 pieces in all, including human-sized sculptures, funeral masks and columns laced with intricate glyphs--to show off the richest ancient culture of the Americas.
The works come from 40 museums in Mexico and from the four Central American countries on whose territory the Maya civilization also existed from 1800 BC until 1524, when Spanish conquistadors first reached the Mayas in what is now southern Mexico.
The show's importance lies in its scope in gathering the best Maya works from so many different museums. For example, a life-size sculpture of a male ballplayer is being seen intact for the first time; the lower torso and legs come from a museum in Merida, the capital of Yucatan state, while the chest and head have been displayed in a museum elsewhere.
More than 600,000 people visited the exhibition during its run earlier this year at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Italy. And more than 326,000 have visited the exhibition here since it opened in early August in the 400-year-old Colegio de San Ildefonso museum in Mexico City's historic center. The exhibition continues until Dec. 30.
The show forms part of a broader revival of things Maya. Important recent discoveries, such as a royal throne at the ancient city of Palenque in Chiapas state, have prompted a jump in tourism to ancient Maya ruins. At the same time, the Mexican government is aggressively promoting the "Mayan Route," including the Caribbean coast south of Cancun and inland ruins such as Chichen Itza in Yucatan and lesser-known marvels such as Calakmul in Campeche state.
Among the cultures that predate the region's conquest by Spain, the Aztecs have long attracted more attention, said exhibition curator Mercedes de la Garza Camino, "perhaps because they had the most spectacular first contact with foreigners." Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes overwhelmed the Aztecs in a fierce war ending in 1521 with his destruction of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. He built the colonial capital of Mexico City atop the ruins.
