AMATE BARK PAINTING -
VILLAGE SCENE  

Amate bark paintings made from mulberry & fig trees. Hand produced in villages from the Guerrero area of Mexico. The Bark is cut from the tree & boiled with lime & ashes for several hours until soft. The fibres are then washed & laid out on boards to form a matrix of squares. These are beaten with a stone until the fibres join together eventually forming paper. It is then left in the sun to dry. The paper is sold to local villages where they are painted. Designs range from everyday scenes to birds, flowers & Pre-Hispanic gods. The paper is also used to form images of animal spirits, whose shapes are cut out & stuck on to sheets of a different colour. They are used in old healing ceremonies & are also sold to tourists.

Amatl is the Aztec word for paper & amate paper was used in the Aztec times for the codices. Bundles of amate were also demanded as forms of tribute by the Aztecs from the people they invaded. With the Spanish arrival, the art virtually died out, but is now thriving once again.

Approx. 25cm x 18cm.

MX-127   £7                

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