THE MAYAN I I \ I LIZ ATI ON B5 



'11n 4 serpent motive controlled the character of 

 Mayan art and was of first importance in all subse- 

 quent arts in Central America and Mexico. The ser- 

 pent was seldom represented realistically, and yet we 

 may -airly infer that the rattlesnake was the prevailing 

 model. Parts of other creatures were added to the 

 serpent's body, such as the plumes of the trogon or 

 quetzal, the teeth of the jaguar, and the ornaments of 

 man. The serpent was idealized and the lines character- 

 istic of it entered into the delineation of many subjects 

 distinct from the serpent itself. Scrolls and other 

 sinuous details were attached to the serpent's body and 

 human ornaments such as earplugs, noseplugs, and even 

 headdresses were added to its head. Finally, a human 

 head was placed in the distended jaws. Tin 4 May; s 

 may have intended to express the essential human in- 

 telligence of the serpent in this fashion. The serpent 

 with a human head in its mouth doubtless belongs in the 

 same category as the partly humanized gods of Egypt, 

 Assyria, and India. It illustrates the partial assump- 

 tion of human form by a beast divinity. The features 

 combined arc ><> peculiar and unnatural that the in- 

 fluence of Mayan art can be traced far and wide through 

 Central America and Mexico by comparative study of 

 the serpent motive. 



A typical serpent head in profile (with the human 

 head omittcd> as developed by the Mayas for decora- 

 tive purposes is reproduced in Fig. 2(i with the parts 

 lettered and named. It will be noted that the lines of 

 interest in this design are either vertical or horizontal, 

 although the part- themselves have sinuous outlines. 



Two feature- of the typical >erpent "s body enter widely 

 into the enrichment of all kind- of subjects. One of 

 these is the double outline which i- derived from the 

 line paralleling the base of the serp< nt's body and serv- 



