Images of ruling ancestry were important chiefly art forms, so were images of existing rulers. In some cases, the very act of ordering a portrait was part of a leader's assumption of responsibilities and entitlements. Among the Kuba people a tradition of royal portraiture, known as ndop settled around 1700 and lasted until colonial times. During the time in power of each Kuba king, a wooden sculpture of monumental size was carved that depicted ‘him’ placed in a throne burdened with trimmings of royal status. The meeting of existing ndop sculptures represented the reign of Kuba kings, and the accumulation of the current ruler's image paved his place within that line.
African method and style to portraiture often replaced idealism for realism, images of rulers carved in a specific style tradition tended to look very much alike. As a result, personal and historical motifs unique to each ruler were often engaged for purposes of being different. The royal subject of an ndop sculpture could have been identified by his ibol, a royal mark that was exposed at the moment of his coronation. Portraits that used personal and historical motifs are also found among the cast brass and carved ivory sculptures of the kingdom of Benin. Obas (kings) and other citizens of the court were identified from one another through costume and ceremonial equipment as well as variations in scale and the most important sculpture in a gathering was the largest one. However, other motifs were used to represent specific individuals were cast brass objects, an ukhurhe (rattle staff) and an ikegobo (altar to the hand) featured depictions of unique individuals. The ukhurhe was used to summon a ruler's attendance at final court ceremonies. Akenzua's, one of the rulers ...
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...frica. The magazine "Time” described him as “The world changer.” After months of traveling through Africa's outmost regions, he was led into a different world a beautiful place where nature has inherited self-worth and elegance in the faces of its people. He tried to portray the natural wandering of the people and the way they lived. From travelling through Africa he photographed a collection of intimate portraits and bright rich landscapes of the continents. When looking at these portraits you see the pride in their eyes, their god-like harmony you lose yourself and experience the unconcealed life of the entire continent. Gerth has photographed Ethiopian tribes, some in color and others in monochrome; it consists of square designed portraits. The tribe’s survival is unfortunately, under threat by various developments for the area, which affects the Lower Omo River.
A sense of royal dignity, composure, and stability are created by the facial expression, the fixed pose, and the rectangular throne and high base from which the proportioned and frontal figure emerges. Cracks in the face, neck, and torso indicate ancient damage sustained by the sculpture.
The debate was how such a barbaric society could produce such sophisticated artwork. The quality of the Benin bronzes, based on...
Western attitudes to African people and culture have always affected how their art was appreciated and this has also coloured the response to the art from Benin. Over time, concepts of ‘Race’, defined as a distinct group with a common lineage, and ‘Primitive’ which pertains to the beginning or origin,, have been inextricably linked with the perception of Africa. The confusion of the two in the minds of people at the end of the 19th century, and some of the 20th, caused a sense of superiority amongst the ‘White Races’ that affected every aspect of their interaction with ‘the Black’. The ‘Civilisation’ of Africa by conquest and force is justified by these views.
In the article of “Exhibiting Intention: Some Preconditions of the Visual Display of Culturally Purposeful Objects”, the author, Michael Baxandall mainly discussed interrelationship within the group of three agents upon their influence and reflect of the artifacts in the museum, and the understanding of culture elements behind the display. In the first part of this paper, I will identify the points of view of the author. In the second part, I will analyze the layout of the gallery, “Imagining the Underground” in Earth Matters in Fowler Museum in UCLA. Several discussion related to the settings of the museum and the article will be discussed interactively. In general, this paper tries to show the robustness and the weakness of Baxandall’s model, which will specified.
Throughout time there are multiple representations of art through paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Two statues would be the Statue of Gudea and The Royal Acquaintances Memi and Sabu, which are remanences of the past.
In sub-Saharan Africa, thousands of languages, cultures, and geographical regions helped influence our African society. The ways in which we produce our artwork, spiritual ideals, and ritual performances are organic and raw. From the tropical regions of Congo and Ghana, to the arid regions of Mali; I pass through the global gateway into a domain where the Western world lost its roots and artistic imagination and grandeur. Africa appeals most to me for its ability to create a realm where the living, dead, and artistic ideals come into a single unit of tranquil philosophy.
This essay deals with the nature of a cross cultural encounter between the Benin people and Portuguese traders in the 15th and 16th centuries, which resulted in the depiction of Portuguese figures in Benin brass plaques. It will propose that this contact between people with different cultures was on the basis of 'mutual regard' (Woods, K. 2008, p. 16), and although the Portuguese had qualms about idolatry in Benin it will show that assumptions by Europeans up to the 20th century of the primitive nature of tribal African societies was inaccurate with regard to the Benin people, who had a society based on the succession of the King or 'Oba', a Royal Family and Nobility. The essay will finally suggest that Benin’s increase in wealth following the arrival of the Portuguese led to a resurgence in bronze sculptures and the introduction of a new form, the rectilinear plaque.
The first art that interested me was the art of Indonesia which in this exhibit depicted the culture, history and art of Indonesian people. For instance, Bali a small island in the Indonesia valued most of its art based on the rich resources they occupied such as most art was composed of gold, diamond and sapphires which people of Bali believed that it will resemble their higher standards in the society. Art of Bali amazed me the most when it came to their “King’s crown” and “Queen’s crown” which was completely “fashioned in pure gold with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires” (Bali). The king’s crown was much simpler compare to queen’s crown which contained many varied of gold decorative that looked like gold flowers, and all of its designs such as rubies or sapphires were perfectly horizontally lined to each other that sort of depicted as a shiny necklace. The Bali’s art that I observed was very interesting know about the society they lived in those centuries with representation of their upscale society (Bali).
Apart from the discernable darkness depicted in England and Belgium, and the Congo, each places’ surface traits are not comparable. The civilized European cities are portrayed as refined, but also as a “whited supulchre,” with “prejudice no doubt” and a desire to “make no end of coin by trade” (Conrad 14). The term “whited supulchre” is a biblical allusion, referring to a person who is superficially pure, but categorically deceptive. In its literal sense, a supulchre is a coffin, and in being whited, it is beautiful on the outside but contains horrors on the inside. This bleak and inhumane place characterizes itself to be civilized, and there in lies the people who willingly welcome the burden of edifying the unfortunates in Africa. Alternatively, the primitive life along the African Congo strikes a glaring disparity to pristine European society. Not only are the riverbanks “rotting with mud” and “thickened with slime,” but also, a “general sense of vague and oppressive wonder” sets a sinister tone to the land and people of the Congo (Conrad 11). The notable absence of description of its inhabitants furthers Africa’s and Africans’ depiction as indistinguishable and incoherent to the European perception. Actual people living in this environ...
...ation of Central Africa.” [pg.6] Achebe states that Conrad’s image of Africa is not of his own, but of the Western imagination and that Conrad is simply showing the norm.
in West Africa. These statues and figures that consisted of distorted human statues and masks are widely speculated to have inspired Picasso 's experiments with Cubism. The Yoruba people of Ife also influenced lost-wax cast metal art, also known as Benin Art, after the people of Benin City that perfected the art of cast metals to the highest quality. Village craft workers in Benin had extensive knowledge of pottery and metalworking temperature changes that prevented the materials from cracking during the casting process. The guild workers forged, then cast clay and metal in wax casts that were shaped into pots, masks, and statues. After the metal was set, artisans hammered and embellished them with one-of-a-kind designs. In the late 1800s, a curator at the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde
...from earlier monuments. An interest in perceptive portraiture begun in the 25th Dynasty was continued, sometimes with splendid results.
Most art has some sort of reason or purpose behind it. It might be religious, symbolic, literal, traditional, customary, or just a preference by the artist. Most African art has a symbolic reason. Masks, pottery, figures, portraits, jewelry, baskets and clothing reflect the religious belief of the different tribes. Africans believed that everything in nature is alive. For example: rocks, grass, plants, trees, rivers and mountains. African art was not popular and was looked down upon until recently. In Nigeria, people were tattooed as a test of courage. The figure- “Portrait Head of a King (Oni)” reflects this. The King has this tattooing on his entire face. The King has big slanted eyes, a prominent nose, and big full lips. All these things represented something to the Nigerian people; the King...
For a person who travels so much and writes in detail about his encounters and experiences, I am rather confused how every time when I think about my travels in Africa it doesn’t fail to put a smile on my face and ponder over all the amazing times I have had there. The depiction of Africa
His choice of words and word combinations, his poetic tone, and suave style and smooth transitions craft a sensual experience. He is on the surface talking about the exploration of man in Africa with all of its physical and moral dilemma, and yet the underbelly is the interior of man, an endeavor to touch the reader at his core. “Each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a center for trade of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing.” (104) When Conrad says that the “germs of empires” floated into man’s head , ebbing down the river into the mystery of an unknown earth, his metaphors appeal emotionally to something serious, a commentary on the heart of man. (67)