Transcript Art Through the Ages - High Point University

Art Through the Ages
Volume I
Early African Art
African Art
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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
Africa
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
Nok Head, 500 B.C.- 200 A.D.
• Rafin Kura, Nigeria
• Terracotta
• 1’ 2 3/16”
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
Equestrian figure, Inland Niger
Delta, 13th- 15th century
• Terracotta
• 28”
• Since the 1940s, low-fired
ceramic figures and
fragments have been
unearthed at various sites
in the Inland Niger Delta
region.