First finding of a Mayan mural painting in proper “moist-fresco” style (8th cent.)
The reports on this find are no longer available, except for one: hispantv, noticias, cultura. Publ. nov. 2013, actual. dec. 2015 (translation from Spanish):
In Guatemala, archaeologists have discovered the first fresco painting in the archaeological site of La Blanca, located in the department of Petén (north), bordering Mexico and Belize. "It is a fresco painting, like the Italian frescoes of the Renaissance, not a dry painting as is usual in all the Mayan murals known so far," says Cristina Vidal, scientific director of the archaeological site. The mural, which dates from the VIII century, is located in the room of a Mayan palace and shows a "historical event that has to do with the presentation of offerings to a special personage". According to the Spanish archaeologist, it is the first mural located where the painter "diluted" the pigments in water to make freer and more natural strokes, similar to those used by the Italian artist Michelangelo in his work Sistine Chapel. Vidal considers the possibility of finding more murals of this type in the region. The painting shows several male and female characters, children and elders, with a band of hieroglyphs, apparently they are in a ceremony of delivery of offerings. The maximum splendor of the Mayan culture, expanded in the territories of the present Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras, is limited to the classic period (250-900 A.D.), while in the postclassic period (900-1200 A.D.) it experienced a stage of decadence.
