Why Art History is Sometimes Cool

Sometimes I fall asleep in Art History. 

You do it too. Don't lie. 

But we had a class last week that was actually really cool. 

The University of Utah has a renowned collection of Latin American Codices (all facsimiles, as many of the real ones no longer exist or are in private collections or big-time museums) 

that we were able to tour.  By the way, a codex (plural: codices) is just a fancy word for an ancient history book with pictures. Pretty much.

It was quite interesting to see the pre-conquest art and to guess what some of it may mean. 

This one (above) actually is known--it is a glossary of sorts. Each image in each square represents a certain place. The places were then translated and written below the pictograph. 

Ha, my favorite part of this one are the "outfits." :)

All these pictures are from the exhibit in the rare books section of the library at the University of Utah. If you can, I suggest taking a look!