art
TY0496
AfricanArtchapter16.pptxAfrican Art
Chapter 16
Major Time or Stylistic Periods
8000-500 BCE – Sahara Rock Art
500-200 BCE – Nok
200 BCE-Present – Djenne
600-1100 BCE – Ghana Empire
Mid-Seventeenth Century – Islam Introduced
800 CE-Present – Ife
9th-10th Century – Igbo Ukwu
1000-1500 CE – Great Zimbabwe
1170 CE-Present – Benin
1250-1450 CE – Mali Empire
1465-1591 CE – Songhay Kingdom
Important Historical Events
2300 BCE – Egyptian envoy, Harkhuf, lands in Nubia (Egyptian relations with the rest of the African continent continued through the Hellenistic era and beyond).
1000-300 BCE – Phoenicians and Greeks founded dozens of settlements along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa to extend trade routes across the Sahara to the peoples of Lake Chad and the bend of the Niger River (when the Romans took control of North Africa, they continued this lucrative trans-Saharan trade).
600-700 CE – Expanding empire of Islam swept across North Africa, and thereafter Islamic merchants were regular visitors to sub-Saharan Africa. Islamic scholars chronicled the great West African empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. West African gold financed the flowering of Islamic culture.
East Africa had been drawn into the maritime trade that ringed the Indian Ocean and extended to Indonesia and the South China Sea. Arab, Indian, and Persian ships plied the coastline. Swahili evolved from centuries of contact between Arabic-speaking merchants and Bantu-speaking Africans. Great port cities such as Kilwa, Mombasa, and Mogadishu arose.
1400 CE – Europeans ventured by ship into the Atlantic Ocean and down the coast of Africa. They rediscovered the continent firsthand.
Nok
Some of the earliest evidence of iron technology in sub-Saharan Africa comes from the Nok culture, which arose in the western Sudan (present-day Nigeria) as early as 500 BEC.
Nok people were farmers who grew grain and oil-bearing seeds, but they were also smelters with the technology for refining ore. Slag and the remains of furnaces have been discovered, along with clay nozzles from the bellows used to fan the fires.
The Nok people created the earliest known sculpture of sub-Saharan Africa, producing accomplished terra-cotta figures of human and animal subjects between 500 BCE-200 CE.
Nok 500 BCE-200 CE
Earliest evidence of iron technology (western Sudan, present-day Nigeria)
Terracotta Head, Nok, 500 BCE-200 CE, 36cm, National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria
Ife
Crowned Head of a Ruler
From Ife
Yoruba Culture
12th-15th century CE
Height 9 7/16”
Memorial Head of an Oba (King)
From Benin, Nigeria
c. 16th century CE
Brass
Height 9”
These men took part in the expedition made by the British in 1897.
Benin
Queen Mother Pendant Mask (Iyoba) 16th century
Edo peoples
Court of Benin, Nigeria
ivory, iron, copper
Culture: Nigeria; Edo, Court of Benin Title: Pendant Mask: Iyoba Work Type: PENDANT, MASK, IYOBA Date: 16th century Location: Object Place: Nigeria Material: Ivory, iron, copper (?) Measurements: H. 9 3/8 in. (23.8 cm) Style: Edo, Court of Benin Repository: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Repository: http://www.metmuseum.org Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art - Images for Academic Publishing ID Number: 11418 Source: Data From: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Credit Line: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1972 (1978.412.323) Image Copyright Notice: Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art Rights: This image was provided by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Contact information: Image Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028, (212) 396-5050 (fax), [email protected] Rights: Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art Rights: This image is available for uses permitted under the ARTstor Terms and Conditions of Use, such as teaching and study, as well as for scholarly publications, through the Images for Academic Publishing (IAP) initiative. If you are seeking to use this image for scholarly publication, you should click on the IAP icon below the thumbnail image.
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Jenné (in Mali) – 200 CE - Present
Great Friday Mosque 13th century
rebuilt 1907
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The Great Mosque of Djenne was built out of mud for weary travelers who wished to speak with God
Great Zimbabwe
Conical Tower in Imba Huru or “Great Enclosure”
18’ diameter on tower
30’ high
800 ft long masonry wall
17’ feet thick base
1200-1400 CE
Great Zimbabwe
Constructed of granite slabs.
Oldest monumental stone structure south of the Sahara 1200-1400 CE.
Consists of a series of walls and towers.
Massive stone masonry, without mortar.
Conical Tower
Aerial View
Herring Bone Designed Wall
Bwa Masks
Masks in Performance 1984
Wood with pigments
Used for initiation of young men and women into puberty.
They are taught about the world of nature spirits and about the masks that represent them.
Only boys wear each mask in turn and learn the dance steps that express the character and personality that each mask represents.
Kuba Funerary Rites
Kuba people are from the Democratic Republic of Congo
Believe that people are reincarnated after a generation or two
They perform funerary masquerades to honor the deceased men and the high-ranking from the council
For important senior title holders the Inuba appears for the ceremony
Ngady Mwaash Mask
From Democratic Republic of Congo
Kuba culture
Late 19th-mid 20th century CE
Wood, pigment, glass brads, cowrie shells, fabric, and thread.
Yoruba Sculpture
Yoruba Twin Figures (Ere Ibeji)
Nigeria, Yoruba culture 20th century
Wood height 7 7/8”
Highest rates of twin births in the world
When a Yoruba twin dies, the parents often consult a diviner, a specialist in ritual and spiritual practices, who may tell then that an image of a twin, or ere ibeji, must be carved to serve as a dwelling place for the deceased twin's spirit.
Yoruba Architecture
Door from Royal Palace in Ikere, Nigeria 1925
Wood with pigment
Yoruba Culture
Classic theme of elongated breasts symbolizes fertility
Asymmetrical composition combines narrative and symbolic scenes in horizontal rectangular panels.
Democratic Republic of Congo Sculpture
Power Figure (Nkisi n’kondi)
Democratic Republic of Congo 19th century
Wood, nails, pins, blades, and other materials
Figure begins as a simple sculpture bought from a market. Afterwards a diviner prescribes magical/medicinal ingredients that are plastered onto the body. It acts as a powerful agent ready to attack the forces of evil on behalf of the human client.
Baule Sculpture
Spirit Spouse
Baule culture 20th century
Wood, glass beads, gold hollow beads, plant fiber, white pigment, and encrustation
Height 19 ¼”
The Baule people believed that before life they lived in the spirit world, and had a spirit spouse whom they left behind. Those who have trouble getting married or having children have these made so that their spirit spouse may enter them. The person must treat this figure like a human, and hopefully they will one day find a real spouse.
Kente Cloth
From Ghana Ashanti Culture
C. 1980 Rayon
Symbol of wealth and royalty
Gold color = wealth
Green color = fertility of the land
Red color = blood of the people
Very difficult and intricate weave
Men normally wove these
Not many early examples survived because new ones were commissioned to replace worn fabrics
Originally produced under royal control
Patterns do not line up so as to look more dazzling
