The World That Wasn't There: Pre-Columbian Art in the Ligabue Collection

A richly illustrated book all about pre-Columbian art

Accompanying a 2016 exhibition at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence, this book looks at Pre-Columbian art - artworks produced by a section of mankind that came to the attention of Europeans only after the voyages of Columbus and other explorers.

It illustrates the collection of pre-Columbian art of Giancarlo and Inti Ligabue, one of the few collections of its kind in Italian hands with over 150 pieces from Mesoamerica and South America. But it also tells the story of certain rare objects which belonged to the Medici Collection, one of Europe’s greatest treasures. Among these are two atlatls, spear-throwers covered in gold-leaf from the Aztec or Mixtec cultures, a Taíno necklace dating from the fourteenth or fifteenth century, and a Teotihuacan stone mask.

These objects are accompanied by pieces from private European collections and a number of significant artworks from the Quai Branly Museum in Paris.

Essays by leading scholars and archaeologists, such as C. Phillips, C.F. Baudez, J-M. Hoppan, J-J Leyenard, F. Kauffmann Doig, C. Cavatrunci, D. Domenica, and M. Polia, weave both scientific and humanistic interpretations of Amerindian thought. The Giancarlo and Inti Ligabue Collection of masterpieces of ancient Latin American cultures is part of a huge and broad-ranging hoard of objects gathered over a period of almost fifty years.

Details

• Author: Adriano Favaro, Jacques Blazy and André Delpuech
• Hardcover: 362 pages
• Date published: September 2015
• Language: English
• Delivery: Allow 1-2 weeks
• ISBN: 978-8874397013
• Product Dimensions: 31 x 26 cm