Painting the Skin reúne investigaciones acerca de las pieles (humanas, animales y vegetales) pintadas en Mesoamérica. El volumen contiene análisis fisicoquímicos y ofrece una explicación sobre la materialidad, los usos y significados culturales de los colores aplicados a una multitud de pieles, como son el cuerpo, los códices e, incluso, las “pieles” de los edificios. 

“Los autores ofrecen investigaciones innovadoras en las que utilizan la ciencia de materiales para ampliar nuestro entendimiento sobre las prácticas culturales asociadas con la pintura hecha sobre diferentes tipos de piel, incluyendo el cuerpo humano y la superficie de documentos plegables. Cada uno de estos capítulos lleva la discusión a un nivel más profundo”, Gabrielle Vail, coautora de  Re-Creating Primordial  Time: Foundation Rituals and Mythology in the Postclassic Maya Codices

Painting the  Skin  brings  together  exciting  research  on  painted  skins-human, animal, and vegetal-in Mesoamerica. It offers physicochemical analysis and interdisciplinary understandings of the materiality, uses, and cultural meanings of the colors applied on a multitude of skins, including bodies, codices, and even building "skins."

"The contributors present cutting-edge research using materials sciences to deepen our understanding of cultural practices associated with painting various types of skin, including human bodies and the surfaces of screenfold books. Each of the well-written chapters adds another layer of depth to the discussion": Gabrielle  Vail, co-author of Re-Creating Primordial Time: Foundation Rituals and Mythology in the Postclassic Maya Codices

                                                                                                            
Foreword: Skin-Deep
Stephen Houston

Acknowledgments

lntroduction: Colors and the Skin in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
Élodie Dupey García and María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual


PART l
COLORING ALIVE AND DEAD BODIES: MATERIALITY 
AND SIGNIFICANCE OF MESOAMERICAN CORPORAL PAINTING

I. Painting the Skin in Ancient Mesoamerica
María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual

II. Materiality and Meaning of Medicinal Body Colors in Teotihuacan
María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual, Sélim Natahi, Véronique Darras, and Linda R. Manzanilla Naim

III. Painting the Dead in the Northern Maya Lowlands
Vera Tiesler, Kadwin Pérez López, and Patricia Quintana Owen

IV. Body Colors and Aromatics in Maya Funerary Rites
María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual, Cristina Vidal Lorenzo,
Patricia Horcajada Campos, and Vera Tiesler

V. Body Color and Body Adornment at Chichén ltzá
Virginia E. Miller

VI. The Yellow Women: Naked Skin, Everyday Cosmetics, and Ritual Body Painting in Postclassic Nahua Society
Élodie Dupey García

VII. The Colors of the Desert: Ritual and Aesthetic Uses of Pigments and Colorants by the Guachichil of Northem Mexico
Olivia Kindl

PART II
ILLUMINATING ANIMAL AND VEGETAL SKINS: CHROMATIC
PALETTES AND MEANING IN PRE-COLUMBIAN CODICES

VIII. Coloring Materials, Technological Practices, and Painting Traditions: Cultural and Historical Implications of Nondestructive Chemical Analyses of Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Codices
Davide Domenici, Costanza Miliani, David Buti, Brunetto Giovanni Brunetti, and Antonio Sgamellotti

IX. The Study of Color in the Colombino Codex: An Experimental Approach
Tatiana Falcón

X. Preliminary lnvestigation on the Codex Borbonicus: Macroscopic Examination and Coloring Materials Characterization
Fabien Pottier, Anne Michelin, Anne Genachte-Le Bail, Aurélie Tournié, Chiristine Andraud, Fabrice Goubard, Aymeric Histace, and Bertrand Lavédrine

XI. Convergence and Difference in the Borgia Group Chromatic Palettes
Élodie Dupey García and María Isabel Álvarez Icaza Longoria

XII. Making and Using Colors in the Manufacture of Nahua Codices: Aesthetic Standards, Symbolic Purposes
Élodie Dupey García

XIII. Skin ofWalls: Plaster Practices Across Maya Books, Buildings, and People
Franco D. Rossi

Epilogue: The Painted Skin, a Cultural and Sensorial Legacy
María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual and Élodie Dupey García

References
Contributors
Index