SOUTH FROM THE SAHARA

1. SOUTH FROM THE SAHARA EARLY AFRICAN ART

2. RUNNING WOMAN • Dotted marks oh her shoulders, legs and torso probably show body painting applied for a ritual • White parallel patterns represent flowing raffia decorations, her skirt is also probably raffia • Horns are part of ceremonial attire • She was painted over multiple smaller humans • Makes it difficult to date and interpret • References to rituals and ideas about the origin, survival, health, and continuity of human populations • Many rock paintings depict humans and a host of spirits and other supernatural beings. • emphasis on the human figure – may symbolize living, dead or even a god Running woman, rock painiting, from Tassili, Algeria, ca. 6000-4000BCE.

3. NOK HEAD • favor three dimension works • Fragment of a full figure • Expressive face: large alert eyes, flaring nostrils, parted lips, raised eyebrows, deeply cut triangular eyes, sharp jaw line • Pierced eyes, mouth, and ear holes---Characteristic of Nok style • Helped to equalize the heating of the hollow head during the firing process • Sculptor carved some details of the head and modeled the rest • Function is unknown but researchers believe it could have been used for ritual purposes • emphasis on performance art – for rituals, showing something, etc Nok Head, from Rafin Kura, Nigeria, ca. 500-200 CE. Terracotta, 1’ 2 3/16” high.

4. MOTHER WITH CHILDREN • Subject matter of these terracotta figures usually includes equestrians, male and female couples, emaciated and diseased people with lesions and swellings, and snake-entwined figures. • At first appears to be a mother and her children, but the “children” are in fact adults. • “Children” are disproportionate to the mother, and have beards • Woman seems to be a metaphorical or legendary mother and the group is not a common family • The body is displayed in a stylistic, abstract form with pointed breast, large heads and exaggerated features • The woman is wearing jewelry and many body decorations • Usually the subject goes without any jewlery Mother with Child(?), from the Inland Niger Delta, Mali, ca. 1000-1500. Terracotta, 1’ 13/4” high.

5. KING FROM IFE • Represents a ruler • usually, Kings/Queens weren’t much richer than the rest of the people • had some slaves • Shows flesh like modeling in the torso • Idealized naturalism in facial features that approaches portraiture • Proportions are less lifelike than they are ideological • The head is the locus of wisdom, destiny, and the essence of being • Precise details of heavily beaded costume, crown, and jewelry worn by the kings • The Ile-Ife figures and related works from the Yoruba kingdom of Owo to the southeast served mainly in rituals focused on sacred kingship King, from Ife, Nigeria, 11th to 12th century. Zinc brass, 1’ 61/2” high

6. GREAT ENCLOSURE • A royal residence with special areas for the ruler, his wives, and nobles, including an open court for ceremonial gatherings • As many as 18,000 people may have lived in the surrounding area • Houses one large and several small conical tower like stone structures • Interpreted as masculine (large towers) and feminine (small towers) • However, the precise significance is unknown • Form of the largest tower suggests a granary. • Such grain bins were symbols of royal power and generosity Walls and tower, Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, 14th century.

7. Architecture • Ten broad categories of vernacular hut and house structures have been identified: • Domical (beehive) • Cone on cylinder • Cone on poles and mud cylinder • Gabled roofed • Pyramidal cone • Rectangle with roof rounded and sloping at ends • Square • Dome or flat roof on clay box • Quadrangular, surrounding an open courtyard • Cone on ground • Architecture was not very central, because it wasn’t necessary according to their beliefs and religions,

8. BIRD WITH CROCODILE • Found in an area now considered the ancestral shrine of the ruler’s first wife • Several feet tall • Bird symbolizes the first wife’s ancestors • Crocodile may represents wife’s male ancestors • Circles beneath the bird are called “eyes of the crocodile” • May symbolically represent elder female ancestors • The double- and single-chevron motifs may represent young male and young female ancestors • The bird perhaps represents some form of bird of prey • Species cannot be identified though • Some researchers have speculated the bird and crocodile symbolize previous rulers who would have acted as messengers between the living and the dead Bird with crocodile image on top of stone monolith, from Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, 15th century. Soapstone, bird image 1’ 2 ½” high

9. BETA MEDHANE ALEM CHURCH • Has a nave and four flanking aisles • Exterior takes form of a colonnade of closely set square pillars, with a crowning pitched roof decorated with semicircular motifs in relief • One each above every column, reinforcing the rhythm of the pillars • Bedrock tufa is soft and easily worked • Entire design had to be visualized before any work began because there was no possibility of revision or correction • Planning and skilled labor needed to carve from the bedrock was astonishing • The largest monolithic church in the world Beta MedhaneAlem church, Lalibela, Ethiopia, 14th century.

10. RELIGION • most areas worshipped one God, or two complementary gods • Some areas committed to Christianity or Islam when they were created • In Ancient Africa, they didn’t have a specific religion per se, but they believed in supernatural beings, and they performed rituals, customs, and celebrations. • There were many “religions”, varying by tribe and region. Africa was also influenced by other religions developing around the world – that’s why none of their artwork is consistent to a God or religion. • Their idea of religion was different – it was a lifestyle and it affected everything they did, even eating or doing chores.

11. IVORY MASK OF A QUEEN MOTHER • Many African societies see masks as mediators between the living world and the supernatural world of the dead, ancestors and other entities. • Most certainly worn by a Benin king at his waist • Probably this and few other known naturalistic ivory human masks were commissioned by Oba Esigie • Esigie’s mother helped him under welfare and in return he created the title of Queen Mother, Iy’oba, and built her a separate palace and court • Probably represents Idia • Sensitive naturalism places it in 16th century • On the crown– there are altering Portuguese heads and mudfish • Symbolic references to Benin’s trade and diplomatic relationships with the Portuguese, and to Olokun(god of the sea) Ivory belt mask of a Queen Mother, from Benin, Nigeria, mid-16th century. Ivory and iron, 9 3/8” high

12. MASTER OF SYMBOLIC EXECUTION • One of three major Sapi ivory carvers during the period • Depicts an extraordinary execution scene • Kneeling figure with a shield in one hand holds an axe in the other hand over another sitting figure about to lose his head • Six severed heads on the ground in front of executioner • Testify executioner’s power • Double zigzag line separates the lid of the globular container from the rest of the vessel • Rests on a circular platform held up by slender rods adorned with crocodile images • Two male and two female figures sit between the rods, grasping them • Men wear European-style pants • Women wear skirts with elaborately decorated patterns • Identical large noses with flaring nostrils, eyes, and lips MASTER OF THE SYMBOLIC EXECUTION, saltcellar, Sapi-Portuguese, from Sierra Leone, 15th to 16th century. Ivory, 1’ 4 7/8” high.