Harvard Club of New Mexico

The National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City: treasures from Olmec to Aztec

Diana McDonald, Ph.D. September 14, 2023, 4:00 pm

Lecture is sponsored by Albuquerque International Association

Botts Hall, Albuquerque Special Collections Library, at 423 Central NE, Albuquerque, NM 87102 (Central & Edith).

The National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City is the largest and most famous museum in Mexico, with the most comprehensive collection of PreColumbian art and archaeology in the world. The star attractions are the famous Aztec Sun Stone, or Calendar Stone, the sculptures of the Aztec civilization, including the sacrificial Stone of Tizoc, as well as the iconic and colossal Olmec heads from that early culture in the Gulf of Mexico. In her lecture, Dr. McDonald will look at these, as well as the fabulous finds from the Maya tomb of King Pakal the Great, the remarkable rescued facades and stelae from Maya temples, and the colossal sculptures and murals from Teotihuacan. She will take a special look at Aztec sculpture, including the terrifying colossal goddess Coatlicue (Serpent Skirt) whose rediscovery so perturbed the populace in 1790 that it was reburied and only surfaced again in the 20^thcentury.

Dr. Diana McDonald is an art historian and lecturer, retired from Boston College. She earned her A.B. in Fine Arts from Harvard University and Ph.D. from Columbia University, where she concentrated in ancient Near Eastern and Pre-Columbian art. She worked at The Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Indonesian National Museum in Jakarta, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and other preeminent organizations. Dr. McDonald’s lectures on ‘30 Masterpieces of the Ancient World’ can be found on The Great Courses.

$15 for AIA Members; $20 for Non-Members; Students– Free. Register at https://conta.cc/3ONj5oM or on our website at www.abqinternational.org