Art Through the AgesVolume I

Early African Art

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

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.