AP Art History Chapter 19 Notes PDF

Preview

Summary

Gardner's Art through the Ages Chapter 19 Lecture, Patricia Morchel...

Description

Chapter Intro - Some of the oldest paintings yet discovered, for example those from the Apollo 11 Cave in Namibia, come from Africa, and African art is as diverse as the continent is vast - Most African artworks created before 1800 are difficult to date and interpret - Oba: An African sacred king - Benin kingship was hereditary and considered sacred, and the purpose of the finest preserved Benin artworks was to honor the ruling oba, his family, and his ancestors - Ikegobo: A Benin royal shrine - Altar to the Hand - from Benin, Nigeria - Brass - King Eresonyen appears again as the largest figure on the cylindrical body of the altar. As in the freestanding group at the top, the size of the figures in relief varies with their importance at the Benin court African Peoples and Art Form - Despite this great variety, African peoples share many core beliefs and practices - These include honoring ancestors, worshiping nature deities, and elevating rulers to sacred status. Most Africans also consult diviners or fortune tellers - Nomadic and semi nomadic peoples excel in the arts of personal adornment and also produce rock engravings and paintings depicting animals and rituals - Farmers, in contrast, often create figural sculpture in terracotta, wood, and metal for display in shrines to legendary ancestors or nature deities held responsible for the health of crops and the well-being of the people - Nearly all African peoples lavish artistic energy on the decoration of their bodies to express their identity and status - Many communities mount richly layered festivals, including masquerades, to celebrate harvests and the New Year and to commemorate the deaths of leaders Prehistory and Early Culture - Thousands of rock engravings and paintings found at hundreds of sites across the continent constitute the earliest known African art - Because humankind apparently originated in Africa, archaeologists may yet discover the world’s earliest art there as well Rock Art - The greatest concentrations of rock art are in the Sahara to the north, the Horn of Africa in the east, and the Kalahari Desert to the south, as well as in caves and on rock outcroppings in southern Africa - Running Woman - Rock Painting, from Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria - Prehistoric rock paintings are difficult to date and interpret as subsequent

superimpositions are frequent - This Algerian example represents a running woman wearing body paint, raffia skirt, and horned headgear, apparently in a ritual context - The dotted marks on her shoulders, legs, and torso probably indicate she is wearing body paint applied for a ritual - Her face is featureless, which is a common trait in the earliest art - Where documentation on authorship or dating is fragmentary or unavailable, art historians sometimes try to establish chronology from an object’s style - The human and humanlike figures may include representations of supernatural beings as well as mortals - Some scholars have, in fact, interpreted the woman from Tassili n’Ajjer as a horned deity instead of a human wearing ceremonial headgear Nok and Lydenburg - the earliest African sculptures in the round have been found at several sites in central Nigeria archaeologists collectively call the Nok culture - Nok Head - from Rafin Kura, Nigeria - Terracotta - The earliest African sculptures in the round come from Nigeria - The Nok culture produced expressive terracotta heads with large eyes, mouths, and ears. Piercing equalized the heat during the firing process - The broken tube around the neck of the Rafin Kura figure may be a bead necklace, an indication the person portrayed held an elevated position in Nok society - The primary ceramists and clay sculptors across the continent have traditionally been women, Nok women may have sculpted these heads as well - Sacrification: Decorative markings on the human body made by cutting or piercing the flesh to create scars - The artist formed the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, as well as the hairline, by applying thin clay fillets onto the head - Head - from Lydenburg, South Africa - Terracotta - This Lydenburg head resembles an inverted terracotta pot and may have been a helmet mask - The sculptor depicted the features by applying thin clay fillets. The scarification marks are signs of beauty Igbo Ukwu - By the 9th or 10th century, a West African bronze-casting tradition of great sophistication had developed in the lower Niger area - Equestrian Figure on Fly-Whisk Hilt

-

from Igbo Ukwu, Nigeria Copper-alloy Bronze The oldest preserved African lost-wax cast bronze is this fly-whisk hilt, which a leader used to extend his reach and magnify his gestures The artist exaggerated the size of the ruler compared with his steed

- King - from Ita Yemoo (Ife), Nigeria - Zinc-brass - Unlike most African sculptures, this royal figure has a natural-istically modeled torso and facial features approaching portraiture - The head, however, the locus of wisdom, is disproportionately large 11th to 18th Centuries - Although kings ruled some African population groups from an early date, the best evidence for royal arts in Africa comes from the several centuries between about 1000 and the beginning of European colonization in the 19th century Ile-If - Oni: An African ruler - Ife artists often portrayed their sacred kings in sculpture - the artists’ naturalism in recording facial features and fleshy anatomy is exceptional - The naturalism does not extend to body proportions - Seated Man - from Tada, Nigeria - Copper - Although stylistically related to the naturalistic zinc-brass sculptures of Ile-Ife, this unique copper seated figure found 120 miles away may be the product of a distinct regional workshop - Also distinguishing this sculpture from those of Ile-Ife is the more naturalistic proportional relationship between the head and body Djenne and Lalibela - The inland floodplain of the Niger River was for the African continent a kind of “fertile crescent” analogous to ancient Mesopotamia - Hundreds of sensitively modeled terracotta sculptures, most dating to between 1100 and 1500, have been found at numerous sites in the Djenne region - Production tapered off sharply, however, with the arrival of Islam, whose adherents shunned figurai art in religious contexts - The Djenne sculptors depicted the human figures in a variety of postures—seated, reclining, kneeling, standing, and on horseback - Archer - from Djenne, Mali, - Terracotta

-

Djenne terracottas present a striking contrast to statues from Ile-Ife This archer is thin with tubular limbs and an elongated head featuring a prominent chin, bulging eyes, and large nose - Great Mosque - Djenne, Mali - The Great Mosque at Djenne resembles Middle Eastern mosques in plan (large courtyard in front of a roofed prayer hall), but the construction materials—adobe and wood—are distinctly African - Beta Giorghis (Church of Saint George) - Lalibela, Ethiopia - The Christian king Lalibela sought to build a New Jerusalem in Ethiopia - The rock-cut church of Saint George emulates Byzantine models and has a Greekcross plan and internal dome. Great Zimbabwe - Walls and Tower - Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe - The Great Zimbabwe Empire in southern Africa had a trade network that extended to Mesopotamia and China - Thirty-foot-high stone walls and conical towers surrounded the royal residence - Monolith with Bird and Crocodile - from Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, 15th century - Soapstone - This soapstone monolith stood in the ancestral shrine of a Great Zimbabwe ruler’s wife - The bird and crocodile may symbolize previous rulers who act as messengers between the living and dead - The Great Zimbabwe birds are of no known species, and some scholars have speculated the five-toed bird and the crocodile symbolize previous rulers who would have acted as messengers between the living and the dead, as well as between the sky and the earth Benin - According to oral tradition, the first Benin king in the 13th century was the grandson of a Yoruba king of Ile-Ife. Benin reached its greatest power and geographical extent in the 16th century - Iy’oba: Benin queen mother - Waist Pendant of a Queen Mother - From Benin, Nigeria - Ivory and iron - This head probably portrays Idia, mother of Oba Esigie, who wore it on his waist - Above Idia’s head are Portuguese heads and mudfish, symbols of trade and of the sea god Olokun

-

Sapi -

-

-

On its crown are alternating bearded Portuguese heads and mudfish, symbolic references respectively to Benin’s trade and diplomatic relationships with the Portuguese and to Olokun, god of the sea, wealth, and creativity

The Portuguese commissions included delicate spoons, forks, and elaborate containers usually referred to as saltcellars, as well as boxes, hunting horns, and knife handles Salt was a valuable commodity, used both as a flavoring and as a food preservative Master of the Symbolic Execution - Saltcellar, Sapi-Portugues - Ivory - The Sapi exported saltcellars combining African and Portuguese traits - This one represents an execution scene with an African-featured man wearing European pants seated among severed heads The European components of this saltcellar are the overall design of a spherical container on a pedestal and some of the geometric patterning on the base and the sphere, as well as certain elements of dress, such as the shirts and hats Distinctly African are the style of the human heads and figures and their proportions, the latter skewed here to emphasize the head...