\Art 254 Life & Afterlife in Italian Renaissance Art Illustrations to the Divine Comedy.
Art Through the Ages Volume I Early African Art. African Art Philosophy: Art was created and...
-
Upload
blanche-caroline-golden -
Category
Documents
-
view
213 -
download
0
Transcript of Art Through the Ages Volume I Early African Art. African Art Philosophy: Art was created and...
African Art
• Philosophy: Art was created and conserved to honor the ancestors in preparation of the afterlife.
• Ancestor worship and nature deities• Art was used for rituals • Hunters and gatherers society• Art differed according to a regions economy, lifestyle,
ideology, and materials available to them.• Works were made from terracotta, ivory, cast metal• Art was used for trade
The Earliest Art In Africa
• The worlds earliest art was discovered in Africa
• Rock engraving was one of the earliest mediums used in Africa.
• Rock art was concentrated in the dry desert regions
• There was a rich record of environment, human activities, and animal species
Characteristics of Nok Art (Central Sudan)
• Pierced eyes, mouth and ear holes.
• Clay sculptures• Ritual context
Heads of Lydenburg (South Africa), 6th – 8th century
• Nearly life size terracotta heads discovered outside of Lydenburg
• Heads were reconstructed from fragments of Terracotta
• Scarification on forehead, temples, and between eyes
Early Iron Age Earthenware Head, Lydenburg, 500-600 A.D.
• 210 mm• Radiocarbon date to
about 500 to 600 A.D.• One of the seven
Lydenburg heads
Equestrain Figure on Fly-Whisk Hilt, Igbo Ukwu, 9th – 10th Century
• Copper-alloy bronze• 6 3/16” high• A bronze-casting
tradition developed in West African during the 9th and 10th century.
• Facial stripes (scarification) on the figure represents marks of status
• Oldest metal castings known from regions south of the Sahara
King, Ile Ife, 11th -12th century
• Zinc-brass alloy• Represents a figure head • Contains precise detailed
patterning • Idealized naturalism• Ife is considered the
cradle of Yoruba culture and civilization
• Figures served in rituals supporting divine kingship
Ivory Belt Mask of a Queen Mother, Benin Art, mid-16th Century
• Ivory and Iron• 9 3/8” high• Royalty commissioned
metal pieces and ivory carvings
• Art was given as royal favors to title holders or other chiefs.
• This mask was worn by a king at his waist.
Bracelets: Crocodile Heads, Benin Art, 17th -19th century
• 17th-19th Century• African art is often functional• African women wear all the jewelry the own at the same
time, not just for ceremonies and festivals.
Oba Supported by Attendants, Benin Art, 1500-1897 A.D.
• Oba is the belief of the ability to accomplish great things
• work depicts a king with a human torso but with legs formed by mudfish
• The king needs the help of his two attendants to stand.
Great Zimbabwe (Southern Africa)
• Great Zimbabwe is also known as “Africa’s Stonehenge”• Zimbabwe means Stone Enclosure in Shona• Complex Stone Structures• Zimbabwe was prosperous trade center, with a wide
trade network • Soapstone birds, ancestor worship
Walls and tower, Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe,14th Century
• Stone• Eliptical Stone walls,
used no mortar • Unusual for their size and
excellence in stone work• Small pieces of stone
were cut for decorative edging or insets
Bird with Crocodile image on top of stone monolith, Great Zimbabwe, 15th
Century
• Soapstone, • Bird is interpreted as
symbolizing the first wife of the rulers ancestors
Sapi Art (West Atlantic Coast)
• Carved stone, wood and ivory objects, such as utensils, saltcellars, boxes, hunting horns, and knife handles.
• Objects were made to export to Europe• Details on figures were characteristically European.• Large heads, flaring nostrils
Master of the Symbolic Execution, saltcellar, Sapi-Portuguese, 15th and
16th Century
• Ivory, 15th-t16th century• Kneeling figure on top
holds an ax and a shield and prepares to behead the slouched figure.
• Circular platform is held up by slender rods adorned by crocodile images
Beta Medhane Alem church, Lalibela, Ethiopia, 14th century
• Largest rock-cut church• Work had to be
visualized before work could begin
Inland Niger Delta Art(Western Sudan)
• Subject matter includes:
equestrians
Male and female couples
emaciated & diseased people
snake entwined figures