Chacmool - Chichen Itza

 

Gordon Nicolson

  1891 - 1975 (biography)

c. 1940  

vintage gelatin silver print 

16 x 19 15/16" image and paper 

artist's stamp verso 

not stated 

ink titled, lower left 

 

 

 

artist 

19686 

$600.00 

An image from a series of silver-print photographs of pre-Columbian ruins by Gordon Nicolson, done around the 1940s.

A ”Chacmool” is a kind of carved sculpture from the pre-Columbian, Mesoamerican period, depicting a figure leaning back on their elbows with their heads turned 90 degrees. In the Yucatan region, as shown here in the famous, ancient Chichen Itza city, they’re thought to be the headstones of slain young warriors, and often feature bowls on their stomachs for holding offerings for the dead warrior’s journey to the next world.

This image is taken from the largest structure in Chichen Itza’s Temple of the Warriors, looking out from the top of the pyramidal temple past the Chacmool who guards it, and out into the courtyard.

Chichen Itza is a site located on the northern center of the Yucatan. Chichen Itza was one of the largest Mayan cities and it was likely to have been one of the mythical great cities, and also the most visited Mayan site on the peninsula.

When Chichen Itza was first settled it was largely agricultural. During the Central Phase of the Classic Period arts and sciences flourished. It was at this time that Chichen Itza became a religious center of increasing importance. From 800 to 925 A.D., the foundations of this magnificent civilization weakened, and the Maya abandoned their religious centers and the rural land around them. Chichen Itza was visited only to perform religious rites or bury the dead. By the 10th century A.D. they returned to Chichen Itza.