Merida, Yucatan
There is something that happens to colors over very long periods of time. Varnish on High Renaissance paintings tends to turn brown and darken the images, once brilliant. Varnish on ancient wood tends to turn brown and give wood a prized lustrous patina. Ancient stones in the tropics become cloaked in iridescent green moss. Yaxchilan is a mystical place that is shrouded in emerald – known as the place of green stones.
A thousand years before Italian painters were putting protective varnish on their panels Mayan artisans were putting polychrome on their plaster edifices. One can only speculate that the result of polychrome on deep bas relief covering the entirety of a nine-terraced pyramid must be overwhelming. For weeks I have been haunted by the artists’ renditions of what these ceremonial cities must have once looked like. There certainly is no equivalent in the historical record.
One enters the ancient city of Uxmal through a modern white and orange portal created in Mayan style; the effect is rather pleasing. As one passes through the portal, directly ahead is the vastness of the Pyramid of the Magician, the largest most recognized structure in Uxmal. One is quite taken with how pristine the restorations of the pyramids and temples are. A warm pink hue emanates from much of the stone work.
Visiting “The Nunnery” is perhaps one of the most breath-taking of experiences in any of these vast ceremonial cities. One enters a large quadrangle surrounded by large edifices on all four sides, elaborately decorated in the most complex of stone carving and relief work. Time has worn away all the polychrome that once encrusted the magnificent friezes and panels. The bare stone is compelling in its beauty. It seems time has not stripped Uxmal of its grandeur. The regal sensibility one has on this quadrangle or the high platform before the Governors Palace reminds one of the bearing to be experienced on the Palace Square in St. Petersburg.
I wonder how it is I can keep going to more and more of these cities and finding each of them so profoundly distinctive. Those who say, “Once you have seen one cathedral, you have seen them all” might say the same for these ancient cities. Certainly, one would not say “Once you have seen one person, you have seen them all.” The personality and physical characteristics of Uxmal make it as distinctive as the face of a dear friend or lover.
Beauty is everywhere, even in the rocks, worn by time.
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