25 – The Ancient Maya: Millennia of Art and Architecture of a Rainforest Civilisation
On campus
Course 25 – Summer School on campus
Monday 14 – Friday 18 July 2025
Dr Sanja Savkic Sebek
£645
Course description
This course explores the rich and diverse visual and material culture of the ancient Maya, one of the greatest civilisations of the ‘New World’, which flourished in modern-day southern Mexico and northern Central America for nearly three millennia, until the arrival of the Spanish in the early sixteenth century.
Given the long duration of Maya civilisation and the vast number of ancient sites, there is significant variation in their art, architecture, history, and politics. Therefore, we will focus on providing an overarching picture of individual regions and their histories, while offering more detailed insights into selected places, artworks, calligraphic writing, and prominent individuals. We will examine a series of key case studies, such as important monuments and art objects in a variety of media, considering them in terms of style and their original socio-political or sacred contexts. Artworks and hieroglyphic texts will be used as primary sources to understand how the ancient Maya expressed ideas about history, political power, and the divine. We will also explore Western encounters with the Maya to consider how this civilisation has been represented both historically and in the present day. The lectures will be complemented by visits to the British Museum and a workshop on Maya writing.
How to book
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If you have any questions please email us at short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk
Lecturer's biography
Dr Sanja Savkic Sebek is an art historian specializing in the art and visual culture of Latin American Indigenous societies, particularly Mesoamerica and New Spain. She has held postdoctoral positions at UNAM’s Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas and the Kunsthistorisches Institut (KHI) in Florence. Currently, she is an associate scholar at KHI and an associate researcher at the Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, UEA. Her research integrates art history, anthropology, and archaeology, exploring themes such as ritual art, materiality, color, writing, and the concepts of time and space in visual arts and architecture. Recent publications include Indigenous Visual Cultures and Aesthetic Practices in the Americas’ Past and Present (with H. Baader, 2019) and “Writing as a Visual Art: The Maya Script” (with E. Velásquez García, 2021). Upcoming works include The Challenge of Mobile Images and Objects in Mesoamerica (with R. Koontz) and Material Transformations in the Artistic Practices of the Indigenous Americas (with B. Artzi and E. Baquedano).