Veiled Brightness

Colour is an integral part of human experience, so common as to be overlooked or treated as unimportant. Yet colour is both unavoidable and varied. Each culture classifies, understands, and uses it in different and often surprising ways, posing particular challenges to those who study colour from long-ago times and places far distant. "Veiled Brightness" reconstructs what colour meant to the ancient Maya, a set of linked peoples and societies who flourished in and around the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and Central America. By using insights from archaeology, linguistics, art history, and conservation, the book charts over two millennia of colour use in a region celebrated for its aesthetic refinement and high degree of craftsmanship. The authors open with a survey of approaches to colour perception, looking at Aristotelian colour theory, recent discoveries in neurophysiology, and anthropological research on colour. Maya colour terminology receives new attention here, clarifying not just basic colour terms, but also the extensional or associated meanings that enriched ancient Maya perception of colour. The materials and technologies of Maya colour production are assembled in one place as never before, providing an invaluable reference for future research. From these investigations, the authors demonstrate that Maya use of colour changed over time, through a sequence of historical and artistic developments that drove the elaboration of new pigments and coloristic effects. These findings open fresh avenues for investigation of ancient Maya aesthetics and worldview and provide a model for how to study the meaning and making of colour in other ancient civilizations.