Uploads from Plant Design Online, tagged laventa, with geodata

Olmec Monkey

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:41:31 -0800

The so-called Monkey Man of the Olmecs is a testament to creativity and spirituality of this culture. Larger-than-life, this sculpture vibrates with graceful form and a kind of yearning for connection with the celestial realm.

Olmec Head Side

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:40:30 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

The sensitivity with which these figures at Park La Venta were carved reflects the skill and care that Olmec artisnas invested in them.

Olmec Monkey Man

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:41:25 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

Olmec Fertility Site

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:40:13 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

Found at the La Venta site, presumably a floor utilized in sacrifices or other practices linked to fertility.

Olmec Emerging from Cave

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:41:49 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

The Olmecs were presumably the oldest Mesoamerican culture, and it is particularly haunting to see the many images they created of human figures emerging from caves, a kind of retelling of a birthing myth.

Park La Venta in Villahermosa was established in the 1960s when PEMEX began exploring and drilling for oil near the original La Venta sites. The Olmec heads and other sculptures were moved to Villahermosa and placed in this park in the same arrangement as they had been found at La Venta.

The history of these sculptures, their move from La Venta, the Olmecs, and the rise of Mesoamerican civilizations is fascinating and well worth a visit, however short, to the steamy teeming city of Villahermosa.

Olmec Head Front

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:40:21 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

The sensitivity with which these figures at Park La Venta were carved reflects the skill and care that Olmec artisans invested in them.

This stylized head seems to have both animal- and human characteristics.

Olmec Squatting Figure

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:40:07 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

A gorgeous, expressive example of Olmec carving that combines human features with stylized forms relating it to another world.

Olmec Cloak Detail

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:41:20 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

The back of a seated figure with a resplendent headdress. These rare forms give us some idea of the Olmec culture that produced them.

Olmec Cave Emergence

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:42:11 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

A very ancient carving of a human figure emerging from a cave from the Park LaVenta in Villahermosa, Mexico.

Olmec Head

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:41:57 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

The "classic" Olmec Head at Park La Venta in Villahermosa, Mexico. The multi-ton monolith from which this head was sculpted had to be brought to the swampy coastal plain of Tabasco State from a distant source of rock, since rocks of this source are not found in the region of La Venta. The Olmecs are presumed to have been the oldest Mesoamerican civilization, and like later civilizations of the region, they did not possess metal tools, wheels, or pack animals. These constraints make the carvings at Park La Venta all the more amazing.

Olmec Frieze

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:40:56 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

An early frieze possibly depicting a myth.

Olmec Figure with Headdress Side

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:41:10 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

Headdress extravagance may have related to status among the Olmecs. The importance of this priestly figure seems to be reflected in both its headdress and marvelous cape.

Olmec Cave Priest

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:40:45 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

Priest emerging from cave is a classic Olmec symbol. This earliest of Mesoamerican civilizations was wrestling with humans, their relationship to Earth, Heaven, and Creation, as reflected in these sculptures from Park La Venta in Villahermosa, Mexico.

Olmec Seated Figure

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:40:39 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

An archaic figure perhaps sitting at the edge of a cave entrance.

Olmec Frog

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:41:39 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

A relatively small sculpture with a mixture of naturalistic and exaggerated features. It lends insight and perhaps humor to the outsize sculptures at Park La Venta.

Olmec Fertility Goddess

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:42:18 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

This squat fertility figure may represent a human emerging from a cave, one of the central images of the Olmec carvings at La Venta.

Olmec

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:42:05 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

Olmec Figure with Headdress

nobody@flickr.com (Plant Design Online) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:41:04 -0800

Plant Design Online posted a photo:

Early Mesoamerican masters of form and angle, the Olmecs produced fabulous human-like figures with well proportioned limbs and body features.