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Chapter 19

Africa Before 1800

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Africa Before 1800

African Art - Overview• Greater African peoples in general

• Decoration of the body to express identity and status• Community participation in rich festivals including masquerades to

celebrate the harvest the new year and commemorate the death of leaders

• Nomadic and semi nomadic people– Art of personal adornment– Rock engravings– Paintings depicting animals and rituals

• Farmers– Figural sculpture in terra-cotta wood and metal

• Displayed and shrines to legendary ancestors• Displayed for nature deities held responsible for the health of crops and

the well-being of the people• Kings and their courts

– Art that celebrates the wealth and power of the ruler

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Figure 19-2 Running horned woman, rock painting, from Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria, ca. 6000–4000 BCE.

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Figure 19-3 Nok head, from Rafin Kura, Nigeria, ca. 500 BCE–200 CE. Terracotta, 1’ 2 3/16” high. National Museum, Lagos.

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Figure 19-4 Head, from Lydenburg, South Africa, ca. 500 ce. Terracotta, 121 5/16”high. South African Museum, Iziko Museums of Cape Town, Cape Town.

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Figure 19-5 Equestrian figure on fly-whisk hilt, from Igbo-Ukwu, Nigeria, 9th to 10th century. Copper-alloy bronze, figure 6 3/16” high. National Museum, Lagos.

11th to 18th Centuries

• Best evidence for Royal arts in Africa from this period

• Major houses of worship for the religions of Christianity and Islam constructed

• Ile-Ife considered by Africans to be the cradle of Yoruba civilization, where the gods Oduduwa and Obatala created the earth and its peoples.

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Figure 19-6 King, from Ita Yemoo (Ife), Nigeria, 11th to 12th century. Zinc-brass, 1’61/2”high.Museum of Ife Antiquities, Ife.

• Observe the idealized naturalism

• Notice that disproportionately large head – Ife seat of wisdom

19-7 Seated man, from Tada, Nigeria, 13th to 14th century. Copper, 1’ 9 1/8” high. National Museum, Lagos.

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Figure 19-8 Archer, from Djenne, Mali, 13th to 15th century. Terracotta, 2’ 3/8” high. National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.

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Figure 19-9 Aerial view of the Great Mosque, Djenne, Mali, Begun 13th century, rebuilt 1906-1907.

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Figure 19-10 Beta Giorghis (Church of Saint George), Lalibela, Ethiopia, 13th century. 13

Figure 19-11 Walls and tower, Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, 14th century.

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Figure 19-12 Monolith with bird and crocodile, from Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, 15th century. Soapstone, bird image 1’21/2”high. Great Zimbabwe Site Museum, Great Zimbabwe.

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Figure 19-13 Waist pendant of a Queen Mother, from Benin, Nigeria, ca.1520. Ivory and iron, 9 3/8”high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1972).

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Figure 19-1 Altar to the Hand and Arm (ikegobo), from Benin, Nigeria, 17th to 18th century. Bronze, 1’ 512”high. British Museum, London.

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Figure 19-14 MASTER OF THE SYMBOLIC EXECUTION, saltcellar, Sapi-Portuguese, from Sierra Leone, 15th to 16th century. Ivory, 1’ 4 7/8” high. Museo Nazionale Preistorico e Etnografico Luigi Pigorini, Rome.