Chapter Twenty

Africa

Prepared by Kelly Donahue-Wallace

Randal WallaceUniversity of North Texas

Gardner's Art through the Ages, Concise Edition by Fred Kleiner

AfricaDates and Places: • 500BCE to present• 52 nations of Africa

People:• Core beliefs: honoring

ancestors, worship of nature deities, divine rulership

Reliquary guardian figure (mbulu ngulu), 19th or early

20th century. Fig. 20-10.

AfricaThemes:• Deities • Rulers• Animals

Forms:• Conceptual and

optical• Form varies by culture WILLIE BESTER, Homage to Steve

Biko, 1992. Fig. 20-22.

Africa

Nok head, ca. 500 BCE–200 CE. Fig. 20-2.

AfricaExample:

• Nok culture

• Part of full figure

• Large heads, small bodies

• Pierced eyes and mouth for cooling clay sculpture

• Women sculptors?Nok head, ca. 500 BCE–200 CE.

Fig. 20-2.

Africa

King, 11th to 12th century. Fig. 20-

4.

AfricaExample:

• Ife, Yoruba culture

• Sacred king effigy

• Naturalistic rendering of likeness

• But squat proportions

• Ritual regalia

King, 11th to 12th century. Fig. 20-4.

Africa

Great Mosque, Djenne, 1906–1907. Fig. 20-5.

AfricaExample:

• Djenne

• Mosque is oldest example of adobe architecture in world

• Courtyard, prayer hall

• Wooden beams project from walls, support roof

Africa

Great Mosque, Djenne, 1906–1907. Fig. 20-5.

Africa

Waist pendant of a Queen Mother,

ca. 1520. Fig. 20-7.

AfricaExample:

• Benin culture

• Pendant hangs on belt

• Images of oba and his court—this is Queen Mother

• Ritual regalia

• Ivory carving

• Portuguese traders Waist pendant of a Queen Mother, ca. 1520. Fig. 20-7.

Africa

Altar to the Hand and Arm (ikegobo),

17th to 18th century. Fig. 20-8.

AfricaExample:

• Benin culture

• Cast-brass royal shrine = ikegobo

• For oba

• Hierarchical composition and scale

• Emphasize head,

• Hand and arm = power Altar to the Hand and Arm

(ikegobo),17th to 18th century. Fig. 20-8.

Africa

MASTER OF THE SYMBOLIC EXECUTION, salt

cellar, Sapi-Portuguese, ca. 1490–1540.

Fig. 20-9.

AfricaExample:

• Sapi culture

• Salt cellar

• Hybrid art with image of Portuguese and European patterns

• Colonial relationship

• Export item from elephant tusk MASTER OF THE SYMBOLIC

EXECUTION, salt cellar, Sapi-Portuguese, ca. 1490–1540.

Fig. 20-9.

Africa

Ancestral screen (nduen fobara), Kalabari Ijaw,

late 19th century. Fig. 20-1.

AfricaExample: • Kalabari Ijaw culture• Shrine to honor

ancestors • Wood, fiber screens• Honors deceased

chief of trading company

• Hierarchy of scale and stylized forms common in African art

Ancestral screen (nduen fobara), Kalabari Ijaw, late 19th

century. Fig. 20-1.

Africa

Nail figure (nkisi n’kondi), ca. 1875–

1900. Fig. 20-13.

AfricaExample:

• Kongo culture

• Kongo power figure

• Consecrated by priest

• Healing spirit or harmful force

• Invoke by touch or words

• Assist individual or community Nail figure (nkisi n’kondi), ca.

1875–1900. Fig. 20-13.

Africa

Seated couple, ca. 1800–1850.

Fig. 20-14.

AfricaExample:

• Dogon culture

• Linked-man-and-woman groups typical

• Part of shrine or altar

• Primordial couple?

• Stylized figures in abstract geometry of body parts

Seated couple, ca. 1800–1850. Fig. 20-14.

Africa

Female mask, 20th century. Fig. 20-19.

AfricaExample:

• Mende culture

• Mask for fertility rituals

• Combines with dress and movement for power

• Function as mediators

• Water symbolism

• Idealized beautyFemale mask, 20th century.

Fig. 20-19.