Only in Mexico did the colonizers of the New World find an art as deeply rooted as Europe's. It was an art that had had 3,000 years to grow, nourished in settled, rich and leisurely societies comparable in many ways to the ancient Egyptians. In the course of raising seasonal crops, worshiping a panoply of local gods to honor bountiful harvests, building huge pyramids to exalt these gods, the Mayas, Olmecs, Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Toltecs and Aztecs developed an artistic tradition unmatched elsewhere in the Americas.
Upon the conquest, the art of Mexico stumbled for...
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