{"id":64442,"date":"2022-06-21T22:19:01","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T22:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/?p=64442"},"modified":"2022-06-21T22:19:01","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T22:19:01","slug":"how-to-tell-authentic-mayan-art-from-the-non-authentic-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/blog\/how-to-tell-authentic-mayan-art-from-the-non-authentic-pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"How to tell authentic Mayan art from the non-authentic pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7MFKy7DJsCY?autoplay=1&#038;mute=1\"><\/iframe>Authentic Mayan art is difficult to distinguish from replica pieces of mayan art. Most of the time, especially with small pieces, the differences are slight, such as the quality of the workmanship or minor variations in decoration. These differences can be hard to see unless you know what to look for.<\/p>\n<p>In this blog I will focus on distinguishing between authentic and replica pieces of Mayan art. I will describe some general differences between authentic and replica pieces that are easy to spot, as well as more subtle signs that require a trained eye to detect them.<\/p>\n<p>There are many people selling art from the Mayan civilization, and most of it is not authentic. Here is a blog that provides tips on how to determine whether a piece is authentic or not.<\/p>\n<p>Description:A story about two brothers who decide to open up a restaurant together<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been collecting Mayan art for years and I am a huge fan of it. Most of the pieces I own are authentic but there are many out there that aren&#8217;t. The markets are flooded with replicas and fakes so how do you tell the difference? Hopefully, this blog will help you to do just that! If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at: mayanartauthenticator@gmail.com<\/p>\n<p>Mayan art is an amazing part of our heritage as a human race and it is important to preserve it (and not get ripped off by fake pieces).<\/p>\n<p>There are many reasons to want to find authentic mayan art. In the first place, it is beautiful and gorgeous and makes a great addition to any collection. In the second place, some of the replicas floating around out there are very poor quality and can be passed off as authentic pieces. Thirdly, there is a lot of money in some of these items as they are highly prized by collectors.<\/p>\n<p>Authentic mayan art is not easy to find on the open market unless you know what it looks like in person since there are so many copies that have been made over the years. There are reputable dealers who deal in authentic works but they are hard to find and it is next to impossible to tell an item&#8217;s authenticity simply by looking at a picture on a website or in a catalog.<\/p>\n<p>You need to know what you are looking for and then look for it in person before you buy. Here are some things to look for:<\/p>\n<p>Adequate weight &#8211; If an item is too light then it is most likely a fake. Authentic mayan art was typically made from extremely dense stone like jade or hematite which would be too heavy for a fake piece made from plaster or resin.<\/p>\n<p>Color &#8211; The coloration of the &#8220;turquoise&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In order to do so, you will have to be able to tell the real thing from a fake. This is not always an easy task. In fact, it can be extremely difficult because of the sheer number of replicas that are sold on the market today. However, there are some guidelines that you can use in order to help you identify authentic Mayan art.<\/p>\n<p>Telling authentic pieces from replicas can save you a lot of money and disappointment. Some of the things that dealers do in order to sell their replicas as authentic include:<\/p>\n<p>1) Changing the original patina or paint of the piece by adding waxes.<\/p>\n<p>2) Placing a replica on top of an authentic base or stand in order to make it look like it came from the same location as the authentic piece.<\/p>\n<p>3) Restoring a piece when it was never broken or damaged with chemicals such as epoxy cement or silicone sealer.<\/p>\n<p>4) Applying an overcoat of paint on a piece in order to hide any imperfections.<\/p>\n<p>5) Filling cracks and holes in pieces with epoxy cement or silicone sealers so they don&#8217;t look as if they were damaged.<\/p>\n<p>6) Adding new stones, objects or other materials in between old stones so it looks as<\/p>\n<p>It should be noted that the term &#8220;pre-Columbian&#8221; is not a synonym for &#8220;authentic.&#8221; Pre-Columbian art includes many pieces (such as those created by the Aztecs) that are not authentic Mayan.<\/p>\n<p>The first thing to realize about collecting pre-Columbian art is that it&#8217;s very easy to get fooled. For example, I once thought I was buying a beautiful codex handpainted on amate paper, but it turned out to be fake. How did I get fooled? In more than one way:<\/p>\n<p>* It was painted on what looked like amate paper, but which in the long run proved to have modern synthetic sizing. This made the piece brittle and hard to restore.<\/p>\n<p>* The seller told me it was about 100 years old, but eventually I learned that it was actually over a hundred years old (1920s or 1930s). The presence of synthetic sizing would have made the paper look old even if it were really from the time period claimed by the seller.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s in the detail\u2026<\/p>\n<p>When we talk about Mayan art we are talking about art by the ancient Maya people of Mesoamerica, mostly from the Yucat\u00e1n Peninsula. While there were many important centers of Maya culture, most of what has survived is from the Classic Period (250-900 CE) and is from the site now called Chich\u00e9n Itz\u00e1 (pronounced &#8220;chechen eetsah&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>The term &#8220;Maya&#8221; refers to a number of related cultures and peoples, all vaguely related but with their own language and customs. Most of the surviving art is from the Yucatecan branch, but there is also considerable material from Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras. The ancient art covers a period when cities like Chich\u00e9n Itz\u00e1 were rising to great prominence in their region. At its peak it was one of the largest cities in Mesoamerica with an estimated population of more than 100,000 &#8211; this in a time when London had just 50,000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n<p>The most distinctive feature of Maya art is its use of repetitive low-relief carving on stone lintels above doorways and on stelae (upright slabs). These are known as stucco-reliefs<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5pxN56l1VCQ?autoplay=1&#038;mute=1\"><\/iframe><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hTHngCrmkXw?autoplay=1&#038;mute=1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Authentic Mayan art is difficult to distinguish from replica pieces of mayan art. Most of the time, especially with small pieces, the differences are slight, such as the quality of the workmanship or minor variations in decoration. These differences can be hard to see unless you know what to look for. In this blog I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64442"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64444,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64442\/revisions\/64444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artspainter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}