Maya Masterpiece Revealed at Bonampak
Photographs by Enrico Ferorelli
Computer reconstructions by Doug Stern
Text by Mary Miller
"’You’ve got Bonampakitis,’ warned a friend. He was right. I have revisited the murals often over the past 19 years, each time discovering new details that answer—or raise—a question. Though scholars vigorously debate the meaning of these works, I see each room as a chapter in an epic tale….These scenes of pomp, warfare, and intimacy profoundly altered—and humbled—Maya scholarship…Yet Bonampak’s graphic depiction of combat, cruelty, vanity , music, and humor—displayed by a cast of more than 200 characters—demonstrates that the Maya exhibited all the flaws and grace of humanity."
But the murals themselves are faded, the ochers, indigos and greens covered with a thick frosting of calcite. After Mexican archaeologists removed the calcite, photographer Ferorelli took color images of the murals. In the fall of 1994, Miller and artist Stern followed. Studying the murals they drew details on acetate sheets laid on top of the photographic enlargements, scanned the photographs into a computer and added the new fragments with an electronic pen. "Because our reconstructions are based largely on photographs, they capture without alteration the murals’ orginals hues, mottled flesh, distinctive style, and even mistakes….We included only what we saw. And what we saw was magnificent."
NGM 1995/02