This stunning new volume features objects from the internationally renowned Bourne Collection of pre-Columbian art (spanning 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1530) assembled by John Bourne in the 1950's and 1960's. It features fine examples of painted earthenware vessels and figures, carved basalt effigies, jewellery and vessels from Mesoamerica, Central America and Andean America covering a host of civilisations, including Teotihuacan, Olmec, Maya, Andean, Aztec and Mixtec. In addition to John Bourne's fascinating account of his first expedition to Chiapas in 1945 and 1946, which started his passion for collecting, there is an extensive essay on authentication, a significant part of the study of pre-Columbian art. Each of the three geographical sections of the main catalogue opens with an introductory text on the art, culture and ceremonial features of that region, followed by discursive entries accompanying each work. TABLE OF CONTENTS: ? Foreword ? Map ? Introduction: Recollections of My Early Travels by John Bourne ? Part 1: Mesoamerica ? Part 2: Central America ? Part 3: Andean South America Colombia and Ecuador ? Peru and Bolivia ? Part 4: Approaches to Authentication by Julie Laufenburger ? Checklist of the Collection ? References ? Index AUTHOR: Dorie Reents-Budet is a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and a Smithsonian Institution research associate. Jessica Arista is a graduate intern at the Winterthur/University of Delaware program in art conservation. She has previously held internships at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Worcester Art Museum department of object conservation. Julie Lauffenburger is senior object conservator, the Walters Art Museum, co-editor of A lost art rediscovered: the architectural ceramics of Byzantium (2001) and a contributor to Untamed: The Art of Antoine-louis Barye (2006). Marc Zender is a professor at Harvard University and works at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. A Mayan anthropologist, he is known for his contributions to the study of Mayan society and language and for decoding and translating several Mayan hieroglyphs. He is the co-author of Reading Maya Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Maya Painting and Sculpture (2011). SELLING POINTS: Presents full-colour plates, details, groupings and comparative images of approximately 147 pre-Columbian works from ancient Mesoamerican, Central American and Andean South American culture Features a major chapter on conservation and authentication of pre-Columbian art - a particularly important aspect of this area of art, and especially important to the scholarly and collector markets
