Review: The Art of Urbanism: How Mesoamerican Kingdoms Represented Themselves in Architecture and Imagery by William L. Fash and Leonardo López Luján, editors

Abstract

William L. Fash and Leonardo Lopez Lujan, editors The Art of Urbanism: How Mesoamerican Kingdoms Represented Themselves in Architecture and Imagery Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2009. 488 pp., 130 color illus. $49.95. ISBN 970884023449 Mesoamerica is long due for a comparative analysis on urbanism, and this monumental tome is an important collective project in that direction. Gathering twenty-three scholars working in various parts of Mesoamerica, with research spanning archaeological and historical analyses, the volume focuses on “how communities at various points in the process of urbanization represented themselves in the art and architecture of several iconic” Mesoamerican centers (Fash and Lopez Lujan, 2). The volume explicitly sets out not to define urbanism or evaluate Mesoamerican centers and cities in a comparative context of past urbanism. Indeed, some hardcore archaeologists may object that some of the centers treated in the volume—e.g., San Lorenzo, Chalcatzingo, and San Bartolo—were not cities. Yet I agree with the spirit of this volume that urbanism includes long-term processes and practices that preceded and, in fact, produced the phenomena that most social scientists and architects consider cities. As the title hints, the volume explores both art in Mesoamerican centers and Mesoamerican centers as art. It explores, on the one hand, elaborate artistic expression in Mesoamerican centers as narratives detailing mythico-historical origins (Mexica depictions of Quetzalcoatl …