Arts of Ancient Mesoamerica
Palenque is one of the historic sites on the US-Mexico border. Even though the site is medium-sized and much smaller than Copan, Tikal, and others, it contains some of the best architecture, bas-relief carvings, roof comb, and sculpture that were produced in the Maya region. The Cross Group at Palenque site is an architectural collection comprising of three temples set up in a pyramidal podium. All three temples faced into a common courtyard in which the temple of the cross is positioned at the north side of the court, the temple of the Foliated cross at the east, and the temple of the sun at the west. The article Text and Image in the tablets of the Cross Group at Palenque, by Clancy, concentrate on the images and the hieroglyphic text that accompanies the image, trying to determine their interpretation.
The images in the Cross Group shrine represent the three aspects of rulership in Maya. That is the generally accepted interpretation of the images on the site. The interpretations were derived from the from the secondary texts near each of the images. The small secondary writing near the tallest image in the shrine identified the main central character as Chan Bahlum II (Clancy, 18). Rulership is regarded as the main theme in his accession. Due to the iconographic variation between the three images, Clancy concludes that they indicate the three aspects of rulership. Similarly, the short-muffled image has also been inferred as the father of Chan Bahlum II, Pascal, who was dead during the ruling period of his son. Therefore, the images of the Cross Group are understood memorial: paying tribute to the accession of Chan Bahlum II to the office and possible exaltations. Pascal provides the three leadership emblems to Chan Bahlum II, each allied to one of the central images in the tablet scenes and one of three patron-gods. However, Clancy raises several questions concerning the general interpretations of the images. First, she is asking why Chan Bahlum II, in all three scenes offering an emblem when e is to be the recipient (Clancy, 18). She claims that a different iconographic interpretation has resulted from that forays the themes of transformation and equivalence based on the content and meaning found on the texts.
From the translation of the texts, we learn that different people may interpret ancient images and texts differently according to their understandings. For instance, Clancy slightly differs from the generally accepted interpretation of who the images represent (Clancy, 19). However, despite all the values different interpretations may have, the primary intention is to show that the physical, formal composition of the scenes of the Palenque inhibits the iconographic meaning of their figures. However, the boundaries of interpretations imposed by figures are only partially restrictive. That is, one figure of the image can exact several different iconographic themes, much in the manner that various stories can be designed by the same fundamental plot. Clancy used the metaphor equivalence to mean power and personal heritage (Clancy, 22). The link between the historical event and mythical one is described by whole Jupiter’s planet synodic cycles, boosted the fact that it was the 75th anniversary of Pascal’s reign, which was marked by a noticeable, celestial, and impressive event involving Jupiter. The historical phenomenon, then, celebrated the elegant and reifying conjunction of the structures of the calendar with more random but existing historical facts.
Clancy has used several sculptural examples to argue for transformation and equivalence in Maya. The first example is the tall costumes worn by the images in the shrine. All the three images in the shrine wore tall costumes. On the temple of the cross, the tall figure’s costume is stylish and simple. The image wears large single-stranded beads that are balanced by a long thread of tiny beads down his back. His skirt is composed of clothes enfolded around his middle by a complex overlapping material and wrapping technique (Clancy, 25). His headgear is a tall cylindrical folded cloth with top expansion comprising a spray of short plantlike and feathers forms. Similarly, all other images (temple of the foliated cross and temple of the sun) are dressed in tall costumes. The use of long costumes shows how rulers in Mayan society use to dress, therefore, clearly bringing about the theme of rulership.
When Clancy stated that there is a difference between theme and content in both text and image, she meant that there is a structural correlation between the image and its composition. The texts signify a thematic strategy in which the symbolic representation of scenes and images should operate (Clancy, 30). The significant correlation existing between images and texts of the Cross Group is elegant and complex and definitely not restricted to analogical reduplication. The text and image are equivalent at the thematic level of meaning only. The connection between the factual text content and the symbolic representation of the figures always disjunctive. The figures, explained or rationalized by their complementary texts, minimize the content of recognizing texts, the follows in the piece of the sequence.
Work Cited
Clancy, Flora S. “Text and Image in the Tablets of the Cross Group at Palenque.” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 11.1 (1986): 17-32.
