1. Artist: n/a
Title: Ancient Africa
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a
Date: n/a
Source/Museum: n/a

2. Key Points-
Spirituality- not decoration- spirit world and ancestors- ancestors can never die
Wood- ivory and some metals- for royalty only
Art work used for ceremony
Architecture- mud brick- in some cases- stone- but rare
Common Beliefs
Ancestors do not die
Family is important esp elderly
Ancestor spirits take around to help and assist
Fertility is important- of the land and the person
There are spirits in nature
Suckling mothers are icons for nature and how the gods assist us
Visitors and European conquerors- English and Portuguese and French – after isolation up to the 19th century. Then the “ Scramble for Africa” started
Independence in 1960s and 1970s

3. Oral tradition to record information
African art is unsigned and undated.
Artists- apprenticeship training much like the Renaissance and lived with patrons.
Men’s work- building, carving, wearing masks in ceremony
Women’s work – painting, ceramics ( Sierra Leone- make and wear
The masks)
Both- weavers
Western Africa- settled communities
East Africa- nomadic
African Art brought to Europe during the Renaissance as a curiosity-
Not till 20th century that it was used and reflected on as art
Architecture- mud brick b/c of weather- had to be rebuilt regularly

4. African Architecture
Traditional Architecture is cool and comfortable made of mud
Brick and thatched roofs.
Inherent probs with the mud brick. So horizontally placed
Beams help for maintenance
No real stonework except at Zimbabwe.
The Great Zimbabwe shows that this technique had been used
Prior- but no examples.

5. Image 167
Title: Conical Tower from the palace at Great Zimbabwe- The capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe – of the Queen of Sheeba
Medium: n/a
Size: height of tower 30' (9.1 m)
Date: c. 1200–1400 CE
Source/Museum: Great Zimbabwe th Century
Called the African Stonehenge- walls around the city were stone and morter- 5 meters tall UNESCO World Heritage Site Shona Term meaning “ venerated houses” , stone enclosure- royal residence, 800 ft. long, 32 feet tall, 17 feet thick at base. Conical tower is grain silos. Control over food symbolized wealth.

6. Ruins of what is left of the Great Zimbabwe

7. Image 167 Circular Wall of the Great Zimbabwe

8. Europeans first look at the Great Zimbabwe- It is the largest example of a walled city in Africa.

9. The Great Birds –16 inches on a pole the height of a person- are Devine and Sacred Birds found in the Great Zimbabwe with crocodile- believed to be the sign that royalty was present.

10. Image 168 Artist: n/a
Title: Great Friday Mosque, first built in 13th century, redone in 1907, Mali
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a
Date: Rebuilt in 1907, in the style of 13th-century original
Source/Museum: DJenné, Mali, Showing The Eastern and Northern Façades The walls are between 41 cm (16 in.) and 61 cm (24 in.) thick - the thickness varying with the wall's height. Bundles of palm branches were included in the building to reduce cracking caused by frequent drastic changes in humidity and temperature and to serve as readymade scaffolding for annual repairs. The walls insulate the building from heat during the day and by nightfall have absorbed enough heat to keep the mosque warm through the night. Gutters, made of ceramic pipes, extend from the roofline and direct water drainage from the roof away from the walls. To protect the Great Mosque from water damage, in particular flooding by the Bani river, the entire structure was constructed on a raised platform 3 meters high. A set of six stairs, each decorated with pinnacles, leads to the mosque’s entrance.

11. Detail of Great Friday Mosque

12. Sculpture- Portable for the most part-
Wood
Ivory and Metals that indicate royalty
Typically- frontal, full face, large heads ( seat of intelligence)
Symmetrical
Created with and adz- geometric
No sketching
Large sex organs
Small hands, feet, arms and legs
Mixed media with feathers, beads added
No physical reality here- spiritual
If you are masked- you become the spirit and can transmit messages
From the ancestors

13. Artist: n/a
Title: Head of a king, Head of a woman- 16thCentury
Medium: Zinc brass
Size: height 11 7⁄16" (29 cm)
Date: c. 13th century CE
Source/Museum: Ife. Yoruba. / Museum of Ife Antiquities, Ife, Nigeria
Dynasty and Divinity presents a major part of the extraordinary body of ancient Ife art in terra-cotta, stone, and metal, dating from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. Artists at Ife, the ancient city-state of the Yoruba people of West Africa (located in present-day southwestern Nigeria), created sculpture that ranks among the most aesthetically striking and technically sophisticated in the world.. Together, these illuminate one of the world's greatest art centers and demonstrate the technological sophistication of Ife artists, as well as the rich aesthetic language they developed in order to convey ideas about worldly and divine power.

14. Artist: n/a
Title: Hip mask representing an iyoba (“Queen Mother”) Ivory Belt Mask 16th century c.- worn by the OBA ( king of Benin)
Medium: Ivory, iron, and copper
Size: height 9⅜" (23.4 cm)
Date: Middle Period, c CE
Source/Museum: Benin, / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1972 ( )
Worn by the Oba to remind him of the queen mother, Idia. One of a pair.

15. Iamge 169 Artist: n/a
Title: Plaque: warrior chief flanked by warriors and attendants; with large heads to indicate intelligence
Medium: Brass
Size: height 14¾" X 15½" (37.5 X 39.4 cm)
Date: Middle Period, c. 1550–1650 CE
Source/Museum: Benin, Nigeria. / The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. K [58-3]
Benin bronzes of the Obo with entourage. Portugese called the Ebo people Bini and called them Benin. They called it Ebo City. Plates were on the doors to the palace.

16. Image 170 Ashanti- The Golden Stool

17. Image 171 Kuba
Ndop portrait of King Mishe miShyannage maMbul

18. Image 171 Contextual Image

19. The upraised arm (which originally held a knife of some type) identifies this figure as a hunter (nkondi), which means that the purpose of this figure was to "hunt down" those who had done wrong or cast spells against the owner of the figure. The very European style hat on this figure's head would have contained special medicines and indicates that the piece was created during the time of European colonialization. The red and white streaks under the eyes represent the "tears" that come with death.
Image 172 Power Figure from Kongo ( Congo) 19 th century
Spirits embedded into the image by the shaman.
Nkisi are usually anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figures (dogs), and are made by a sculptor and a shaman. The power figure receives the shaman’s supernatural potential when a receptacle containing magical substances and sealed with a shell or mirror is attached to its head or belly. Nails are driven into the figure to validate each oath or appeal for retaliation, and they gradually transform the nkondi's appearance. As a result, they were seen as malevolent, savage instruments (inappropriately called "nail fetishes") that were used indiscriminately, whereas in fact this aggressive "decorating" was carried out to right specific injustices.

20. More power figures from Kongo.

21. Image 173 Portrait mask Baule People . Mblo

22. Image 174 Chokwe Mask- Female (Pwo) late 19th Century

23. Image 175 Bundu Mask from Sierra Leone 20th Century wood.
The features of a Mende mask convey Mende ideals of female morality and physical beauty. They are unusual because the masks are worn by women.[3] The bird on top of the head represents a woman's natural intuition that lets her see and know things that others can't. The high or broad forehead represents good luck or the sharp, contemplative mind of the ideal Mende woman. Downcast eyes symbolize a spiritual nature and it is through these small slits that a woman wearing the mask would look out of. The small mouth signifies the ideal woman's quiet and humble character. The markings on the cheeks are representative of the decorative scars girls receive as they step into womanhood. The scars are a symbol of her new, harder life. The neck rolls are an indication of the health of an ideal women. They have also been called symbols of the pattern of concentric, circular ripples the Mende spirit makes when emerging from the water.[2] In the Mende culture full-figured women are beautiful. The intricate hairstyles reveal the close ties within a community of women. The holes at the base of the mask are where the rest of the costume is attached.

24. Igbo
Image 176
Ikenga shrine figure- 19th – 20th wooden figure
Honors the right hand, which holds the tools or weapons, makes sacrifices and conducts ritual

25. Image 177 Memory Board ( Lukasa) from Luba Mbudye Society
Helps the user remember key elements in a story
Court ceremonies
Migrations
Heros
Kinship
Geneology
Lists of Kings

26. Image 178 Bamileke mask- Aka elephant mask

27. Image 179 Fang Reliquary Figure
(nlo bieri)

28. Image 180 Yoruba
Olowe of Ise ( artist) Veranda post of Enthrowed King and Senior Wife