Chapter 15

South From the SaharaEarly African Art

Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 12e

Ancient Mali KingdomAncient Ghana Kingdom

Modern nations included for reference

Africa before 1800

Early Africa & its Art• Containing many deserts, high mountains in the east, and three great

rivers; the Niger, the Congo, and the Nile, Africa is more than one-fifth of the world’s land mass

• Hundreds of distinct ethnic, cultural, and linguistic groups, often but inaccurately called “tribes”, long have inhabited this enormous continent

• The African people have shared many core beliefs and practices. These include honoring ancestors and worshiping nature deities, often with blood sacrifice, and a tendency to elevate rules to sacred status

• These beliefs have given ruse to many richly expressive art traditions; rock engraving and painting, personal decoration, masquerades and other lavish festivals, the display of court arts and regalia, figural sculpture (often is shrines), elaborate architecture, and domestic arts, among other forms

• Among farmers, in contrast, figural sculpture in terracotta, wood and metal was often housed in shrines to legendary ancestors or nature deities held responsible for the health of crops and the well-being of the people

Prehistoric African Art

15-1 Running woman, rock painting, from Tasslil (Inauouanrhat), Algeria, ca. 6000-4000 BCE.

•Depicts a woman running with convincing animation and significant detail

•Dotted marks on her shoulders, legs and torso probably show body painting applied for a ritual

•The white parallel patterns on her arms and waist appear to represent flowing raffia decorations and her skirt

•Horns are part of her ceremonial attire

•This detailed image was painted over a field of much smaller painted human beings

Ile-Ife Art (West of the Lower Niger)

15-6 King, from Ife, Nigeria, 11th to 12th century. Zinc brass, 1’ 6 ½’’ high. Ife Museum, Ife.

•Cast in a zinc-brass alloy, undoubtedly represents a ruler

•Shows flesh like modeling in the torso and the kind of idealized naturalism in facial features that approaches portraiture

•Less life-like proportions, however they are ideological

•Heavily detailed beaded costume, crown, and jewelry worn by both ancient and contemporary kings in Ile-Ife and other Yoruba city states

•Many of these rituals have survived into the 21st century

15-7 Walls and tower, Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, 14th century

Great Zimbabwe Art (Southern Africa)

•First occupied in the 11th century

•Features walled enclosures and towers that date from about the late 13th to the middle of the 15th century, when the Great Zimbabwe empire had a wide trade network

•Finds of beads and pottery objects, underscore that Great Zimbabwe was a prosperous trade center well before•Europeans began their coastal voyage in the late 15th century•The complex was a royal residence with special areas for the ruler, his wives, and nobles, including an open court for ceremonial gatherings•Some perimeter walls reach 30 ft high

Lalibela Art and Architecture

(Ethiopia)

15-9 Beta Medhane Alem Church,Lalibela, Ethiopia, 14th century

•Christianity arrived in Ethiopia in the early 4th century, when the region was part of the indigenous Aksum Empire

•Cut from living bedrock, being the largest of these rock-cut churches; has a nave and four flanking aisles

•Closely set square pillars, with a crowing pitched roof decorated with semicircular motifs in relief

•The bedrock tufa is soft and easily worked, the whole work had to be visualized beforehand because correction was no option

Intro to Modern African Art

Modern African Art

• African Art dating from 1800 to present is considered modern

• African art forms are just recently being recognized for having a history and purpose

• History of these art forms has been revealed through field research in Africa including interviewing the natives in several different tribes and archeological research

San Art (South Africa)

• San People are hunter + gatherers

• Rock and cave paintings are a common tradition

• Cave paintings can date to as recent as the 19th century

• They are recent because they depict trade and conflict with Europeans

• Also depict animals hunted for food

• San people were affected after settlement of their land by Europeans

• They raided local ranches for food and could not be caught by European military forces

• Eland (antelope)- sacred animal who is worshipped for bringing rain to the land and is depicted frequently in their art

• Found at Mzimkhulu River near Bamboo Mountain

• Dates to 19th century• Previously was 8 ft long but is

now in fragments• Most likely created during a

series of raids on European farms from 1838-1848

• On right, two San riders on horses carrying meat drive a herd of cattle toward encampment outline in center

• Within camp outline are women and children

• Far left – single figure leas an eland toward encampment, which may represent ritual when religious leader calls for rain and stop of European settlement

Fang and “Kota” Art (Cameroon and Gabon)• Tribes known for guardian figures,

power images, and ancestor reliquaries

• Ancestor reliquaries-collections of bones of an ancestor in a decorated container to be worshipped

• Ancestor reliquary (mbulu ngulu) from Gabon with stylized body in form of open diamond and wooden simplified head and hair

• Geometric borders and subdivisions add texture

• Covered with strips of polished copper and brass

• Would be stuck into ancestral relic container

Kongo Art (Democratic Republic of the Congo)• Known also for ancestor and power images

that commemorate deceased, heal sick, or have a religious purpose

• Known for Naturalism• Power figures were consecrated by a trained

priest and embodied spirits believed to heal or inflict harm or death

• Owners would insert nails or blades into figure in order to make figure do its work

• The larger the figure. The more power it had

• Power figure of a large, standing man with nails and blades sticking into it

• Cowrie shell is protruding from abdomen

• Meant to aid an entire community

• Naturalistic although the facial features are simplified and head is magnified in size

• More focus on the skin than on muscle mass

Dogon Art (Mali)

• People lived near Niger River

• Strongly stylized art that depicts gender roles

• Man carries quiver, which symbolizes strength and protection

• Women carries child, which symbolizes a nurturing mother

• Four ancestor figures support bench, they sit on.

• Conceptual image with no realism –gives the idea of the human form

Baule Art (Central Cote d’Ivoire)• Known for depicting more

naturalistic human anatomy• Also exaggeration of human

form such as larger heads, necks, and calf muscles- idealism of tribe

• Figures portray bush spirits (asye usu) that were possessed by diviner who consulter spirits

• Bush spirits were ugly deformed creatures but it was believed that they would not use figures that were not ideal

• Spirits could solve problems or worsen them