African Art, CA. 1000-1800 This week I decided to look at In - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

African Art, CA. 1000-1800 This week I decided to look at “In Africa, art helps define and create culture. It is integrated within African life African art. While I wouldn’t say and thought, and was not created solely for display until the final decades of the it’s my favorite art to look at, 20th century.” (410) this chapter (15) intrigued me. My mom lived in Africa during her childhood so we have lots of little African sculptures and artifacts all around our house. I was curious to compare “real” ancient African art to the little trinkets we have. Africa is very large leading to a lot of variety within. However, there are similarities across the continent. For instance… On each slide I chose one main piece of art to go 1) A big emphasis was put on honoring more in depth with. I also included one or two other works of art that share something in ancestors common with the main piece. 2) Nature deities were worshiped 3) Rulers obtained a sacred status

King Heads and the Sacred Nature of Kings in African Art Ife, Nigeria, 11th to 12th century, This is a sculpture Also significant is that Zinc brass of a king. Setting it this piece of art, along apart from other with a lot of other African art, the African art, features an modeling shows abnormally large head. idealized This was because naturalism. It is Yoruba (a group of Altar to the Hand and Arm (left) and “idealized” because people in Benin and Master of the Symbolic Execution there are no Nigeria) believed the (right) also features proportions that blemishes or signs head was “the locus of emphasize the size of the head. of age. It is wisdom, destiny, and “naturalism” the essence of being.” Altar to the Hand and Arm also shows because the face is (415) the sacred nature rulers possessed. The quite realistic, king is larger than the surrounding Lastly, this statue is also almost to the level figures, animals are being sacrificed to significant in the fact that it of portraiture. him, and this altar’s purpose was to was made to serve in rituals make sacrifices to the king’s power and based on sacred kingship. accomplishment. Rulers’ sacred nature was often emphasized in Africa.

Running woman Body-Decoration in African Art rock painting, from Tassili, Algeria, 6000-4000 BCE The Head from Lydenburg is another This piece was found in example of body-decoration in African art. Apollo 11 cave and is People would purposefully create scars on one of the earliest their flesh to create patterns. This head known works of art. It displays these scarification marks. has a significant amount of detail for the time and was superimposed over other figures, a common occurrence in African art. The woman wears ceremonial attire and also has dotted marks all up her arms, legs, and torso. This sort of body painting was very common for rituals.

Walls and tower, Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe Zimbabwe, 14th century Architecture and Ancestors in African Art The Great Zimbabwe (left and top) is an example of African architecture. It had large towers and walls (up to 30ft) and served as a royal residence. Commoners would live in the surrounding area. It also may have been a granary. The Bird with crocodile image on top of stone monolith (right) was found at an ancestral shrine of a king’s wife at Great Zimbabwe. Ancestors were very important in African culture. The bird possibly symbolizes the wife’s ancestors, who were believed to communicate between sky and earth. Another possibility is that the bird, along with crocodile, symbolizes previous rulers who were messengers between the living and the dead. The crocodile’s eyes and the chevron patterns also represent different ancestors. The Beta Medhane Alem church from Ethiopia is another example of African architecture.

Ivory belt mask of a Queen Mother Benin, Nigeria, mid-16th century. Ivory and iron. European Influence and Deities in African Art This mask was worn around the waist of a Benin king. It shows Idia, the mother of Oba Esigie (by whom the mask was commissioned). Its crown is made up of Portuguese heads and mudfish. Portuguese heads are also around the neck. The mudfish symbolize the god of the sea, wealth, and creativity, Olokun. Worship of nature deities The Master of the Symbolic Execution was common in African culture. also references Portugal. In the 15th-16th centuries, Portuguese explorers would The Portuguese heads reference the relationship commision Sapi (West-coast) artists. This the Benin had with Portugal. They often traded is one of those pieces made for Portugal. with each other. It was also influenced by European design in the fact that it has a spherical container resting on a pedestal, geometric patterns, and shirts and hats that were common in Europe.