Unit 1 SG 3

Unit ONE: Egyptian
STUDY GUIDE
T Musicians and dancers from the tomb of Nebamun (Thebes), c. 1400-1350 BCE
rare attempt at a frontal pose
1. “The experimental spirit of Middle Kingdom wall painting was revived intact
during the New Kingdom. In the Theban tomb of Nebamun, … innovation and
beauty are united in a banquet scene … that gives us a tantalizing glimpse of
Egyptian dance and music. If only we knew what it sounded like! Pictures
such as this provided the ka with all the earthly pleasures in the afterlife. The
artist depicts the rapt inspiration of the musicians and the graceful
movements of the dancing girls, while enriching the surface with lavish
decoration” (Janson 54-56). “Egyptian painting was based on drawing- color
was always secondary- and it is the first school of art which offers a wealth of
preliminary sketches. These sketches, called ostraca, were usually made on stray chips of limestone, but also occasionally, as the
name (Greek for potsherds) suggests, on pieces of pottery. Once the outline had been drawn, color was used to fill it in- flat colors,
without shading, though occasionally there is a skillful imitation of textures as, for example, when painting a mottled stone vase.
Because of the limited range of colors available (all derived from natural earths and oxides), not much trouble was taken to make the
works naturalistic but they are often richly decorative” (Lucie-Smith, Art and Civilization 40).
2. “Egyptian tomb painting “began as a substitute for more expensive and laborious shallow reliefs in carved stone, which were
themselves originally tinted. Artists would have been torn between the need for haste and economy, and the desire to avoid
ambiguity. Any ‘spontaneity’ we now praise is not necessarily a quality the painters themselves would have valued, but something
forced on them by circumstances. They were not interested in what was transient, but rather wanted to show things in their eternal
aspect, giving all the date needed for complete recognition of what was being shown” (40). “When Nebamun was buried, his family
must have eaten the customary ceremonial meal at his tomb. They would have returned one day each year to partake in a
commemorative banquet for the living to commune with the dead. This fresco represents just such a funerary feast, with an ample
supply of wine jars at the right. It also shows that New Kingdom artists did not always adhere to the old standards for figural
representation. The overlapping of the dancers’ figures, their facing in opposite directions, and their rather complicated gyrations
were carefully and accurately observed and executed, and the result is a pleasing intertwined motif. The profile view of the dances is
consistent with their lesser importance than the others in the Egyptian hierarchy. The composite view is still reserved for Nebamun
and his family. Of the four seated women, the artist represented the two at the left conventionally, but the other two face the
observer in what is a rarely attempted frontal pose. They clap and beat time to the dance, while one of them plays the reeds. The
artist took careful note of the soles of their feet as they sat cross-legged and suggested the movement of the women’s heads by the
loose arrangement of their hair strands” (Kleiner, Mamiya, and Tansey 68).
3. “As a rule, the Egyptians ate three times a day. In the morning they partook of a breakfast called ‘mouthwashing’, mostly alone.
For lunch and especially for the evening meal, called ‘rising of the stars’, they met with their family and friends. A joyful get-together
was one of the pleasures of life, as shown by painted banquets in the tombs. ‘To please the heart, to rejoice in pleasure, to take part
in good things, a lotus blossom on my nose, and myrrh as unguent on my locks’ is written next to the festive picture in the tomb of
the vizier Rekhmira” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 138).
4. “Tomb painting was very discreet in the depiction of love and erotica, with only the woman’s arm laid around the shoulder or back
of the man (never the other way round!) giving a clue. Perhaps the harp playing of young girls was seen as the prelude to ‘hankypanky’. The Egyptians probably associated erotic pleasure with painted bowers or with hunting scenes in reed thickets, accompanied
by women. Explicit representations are missing in the burial chambers. The situation is different in pictures, which were
presumably produced for the pleasure of the artist and his friends. A papyrus stored in a Turin museum, clay fragments with
sketches or small clay figures show that at that time fantasies also knew no bounds. However, these representations lay outside the
confines of official art with its strict rules of form” (138). “At the painted banquets, there are also naked women ‘who have not yet
given birth’ and scantily clad female musicians accompanying young female dancers performing acrobatic exercises. The pleasure
the Egyptians took in beautiful bodies cannot be overestimated. Even in official processions, female acrobats and dancers of the
goddess of love Hathor took part dressed only in a short apron, rounded at the front” (140).
5. “The national drink of the Egyptians was a thick beer, which with bread made up the basis of their food. Since it did not keep,
beer had to be freshly brewed continually in all households. Ground grain was dampened and lightly baked in cakes, then crushed
in large tubs and fermented and finally pushed through a sieve. Hops were unknown. Those who could afford luxuries drank wine,
which was cultivated in bower-like constructions on the flat land, mostly in the Delta area. The Egyptians liked it sweet, ‘sweeter
than honey’. In a text from the 19th or 20th Dynasty we read of a man who boarded a ship in the town of Ramesses (on the Delta) with
1,500 sealed jars of wine and 100 jars of different liquors. We can draw the conclusion that there was a lively wine trade” (135).
6. When depicted on tombs, women “all appear young and beautiful- perfect, which was how they wanted to enter eternity. Fitting
the Egyptian ideal of beauty, they had light skin (contrasting with the dark red-brown of the men), and were dainty, graceful, longlimbed, narrow-hipped, with small, high breasts and a relatively large head, emphasized further by the massive wig” (108). “In the Old
Kingdom women wore a narrow, figure-hugging, ankle-length slip with straps; in the Middle and at the start of the New Kingdoms the
garment came up to just under the bust, leaving the breasts free. Later, fashion dictated a pleated outer garment, which emphasized
rather than covered up the body’s curves- a flattering, seductive fashion. Added to it were thrifty colorful accessories such as belts,
jewelry and net shawls made from pearls” (108). “In the New Kingdom too, simple transparent garments emphasize the graceful
figures of young servant girls. Obviously the Egyptians enjoyed the sight of beautiful bodies and did not want to do with out them in
the underworld” (108).
36
Unit ONE: Egyptian
STUDY GUIDE
U Akhenaton, from the temple of Amen-Re (Karnak), c. 1353-1335 BCE, sandstone
Akhenaton and Nefertiti/ cult of Aton/ curvilinear lines and increased naturalistic rendering/ image of
androgynous “spiritual beauty,” the Amarna style
1. “Generations of scholars have tried to answer the questions surrounding King Amenhotep IV, who
challenged the entrenched religious cults and threatened the very existence of the established priesthood
that had held power in Egypt for centuries. By the Fifth Dynasty, the sun god Ra had superseded Horus
as the supreme deity. Ra’s cult was introduced north of Cairo at Heliopolis, the city of the sunrise. By the
Twelfth Dynasty, Amon had superseded Ra in this position, and then in the Eighteenth Dynasty,
Amenhotep IV adopted a new, and unpopular, religious system that was relatively monotheistic. His
primary god was Aten, the sun disk, and Amenhotep accordingly changed his name to Akhenaten
(meaning ‘servant of the Aten’). He effaced the names and images of the other gods. Presumably to escape
the influence of the priests, he moved the capital down the Nile (i.e. north) from the major cult center of
Thebes to Akhetaten (now known as Tell el-Amarna, from with the term for the period is derived).
Akhenaton chose the site and name for his new capital because the sun rising over the horizon at that
point resembled the hieroglyph for sunrise” (Adams, Art Across Time 101).
2. “Nothing is known of the origin of his ideas, which greatly influenced artistic style during his reign.
Statues of Akhenaten and his family differ dramatically from those of traditional pharaohs. He looks as if
he had unusual, if not deformed, physical features. Here Akhenaten holds the crook and flail, which are
attributes of Osiris and of Egyptian royalty. He wears the combined hedjet and deshret crowns of Upper
and Lower Egypt. Carved into the surface of his body- by his right shoulder and at his waist- are his
cartouches. Despite the traditional attributes of pharaonic power and the iconography of royalty, however,
Akhenaton broke with artistic with convention. Rather than always being represented as an assertive and
dominating king identified with the gods, Akhenaten often shows himself as a priest of Aten. In the
statue… however, he is shown as a pharaoh, despite being elongated, thin, pot-bellied, and curvilinear.
Although some scholars believe that Akhenaten suffered from acromegaly- a condition caused by an
overactive pituitary gland, resulting enlarged hands, feet, and face- others think these proportions reflect
changes consistent with his religious and social innovations” (101). “Akhenaten stressed the philosophical
principle of maat, or divine truth, and one of his kingly titles was ‘Living in Maat.’ Such concern for truth
found expression in new artistic conventions. In portraits of the king artists emphasized his unusual
characteristics- long thin arms and legs, a protruding stomach, swelling thighs, a thin neck supporting an
elongated skull” (Stokstad, Art History 119).
3. “The king unsettled the country. As supreme priest, he decided that instead of the old multiplicity of gods, only the god Aten
should be worshipped, in his guise as the sun-disc. He therefore removed the name of the god Amun from his title and replaced it
with Aten, calling himself Akhenaton. Everybody could directly see this one god, they could feel his power. Pictorially, Aten was
depicted as a sun-disc, mostly with the uraeus as a sign of power, and with rays ending in hands, which extended the favor of their
god to the people. Perhaps the causes of this revolution were not only of a religious nature; it is possible that at the same time the
king was depriving the too powerful priesthood of power, wanting to rebuild the administration with which it was closely linked. For
he not only built a large temple to Aten in Karnak, but also a new royal capital in middle Egypt. In the 6th year of his reign he left
Thebes, the old royal residence, replacing many officials before the move, and moved to Achetaton, modern-day el-Amarna. The king
altered the style of representation as well as the religion. He clearly distanced himself from the hitherto cultivated ideal by making
the back of his head protrude. The somewhat feminine rounded body was also unusual. People have tried to attribute these
derivations to deformities or an illness, but there is no proof of this. Also new in the pictorial repertoire of the pharaohs were
glimpses into family life- daughters playing with each other or the royal couple with three of their daughters sitting under the rays of
the Aten sun-disc. After Akhenaten’s death- we know neither how he died nor where he was buried- priests and followers of the
deposed gods won back their power. His successor Tutankhaten (who had married one of Akhenaten’s daughters) changed his name
to Tutankhamun, thereby restoring power to the old god Amun, and moved back to Thebes with his royal household” (Hagen and
Hagen, Egypt 47).
4. “The written word was believed to hold great power, comparable to that contained within artistic images, which explains the fact
that some hieroglyphic symbols in religious inscriptions were occasionally mutilated as they were carved to ‘neutralize’ potential
dangers” (Fletcher 23). “If a royal name was removed in this way, or scraped or chiseled from his own monuments, it was as if the
individual concerned had ceased to exist. This fate befell several pharaohs in the course of Egyptian history, including the ‘heretic’
Akhenaten. Conversely, simply to speak the name of a deceased person was believed to make him or her alive again, which explains
why the name of the deceased is so frequently repeated in tomb inscriptions” (23). “Because of their potency, names were carefully
chosen, and often included the name of a god or king- for example, Amenhotep (‘Amun is Content’), Tutankhamen (‘Living Image of
Amun’), and Pepiankh (‘Pepi Lives’). Simpler names included Nefer (‘Beautiful’, as in Nefertiti and Nefertari), Seneb (‘Healthy’), and
Sheshen (‘Lotus’), which became- via Hebrew- the name Susannah or Susan” (23).
5. “The center of the worship of Amun, at Karnak (on the east bank of the Nile at Thebes), was embellished by successive pharaohs
until it became the largest temple complex in Egypt. As pharaohs offered increasing amounts of tribute to Karnak, Amun’s priests
began to accumulate wealth and power to rival that of the monarchy itself. At Karnak, Amun was associated with the Theban
goddess Mut, who was revered as one of the symbolic divine mothers of pharaoh. She supplanted Amaunet as the consort of Amun.
With their child, the moon god Khonsu, they made up the ‘Divine Triad’. All three had temple complexes at Karnak” (54).
37
Unit ONE: Egyptian
STUDY GUIDE
V Nefertiti and the Amarna Style
1. “Nefertiti was Akhenaten’s principal wife, even though he also had Mittani and Babylonian wives, presumably for diplomatic
reasons. Nefertiti was given artistic prominence and was important in Akhenaton’s sun cult” (Adams, Art Across Time 102) A famous
limestone portrait bust of Nefertiti “was discovered along with various drawings and other items relating to commissions for the royal
family in the studio of the sculptor Tuthmose at Akhetaten, the capital city during the Amarna period. Bust portraits, consisting
solely of the head and shoulders, were rare in New Kingdom art. Scholars believe that Tuthmose may have made this one as a
finished model to follow in sculpting or painting other images of his patron. From depictions of sculptors at work, we know that some
statues were made in parts and then assembled, but there is no indication that his head was meant to be attached to a body”
(Stokstad, Art History 120). “Unlike his predecessors, and in keeping with his penchant for candor, Akhenaton urged his artists to
portray the royal family in informal situations. Even private houses in the capital city were adorned with reliefs of the king and his
family, an indication that he managed to substitute the veneration of the royal household for the traditional worship of families of
gods, such as that of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu” (119). In one sunken relief of Akhenaton and his family, Nefertiti’s “throne is adorned
with the stylized symbol of a unified Egypt, which has led some historians to conclude that Nefertiti acted as co-ruler with her
husband” (120).
2. “The bust is though to have served as a model, from which other works could be made. This at least would
explain why the right eye is a temporary rock crystal. The queen is wearing a wide decorated collar and a blue
crown, around which a band is tied. Above her forehead is a rearing uraeus as a sign of royal power, but it has
been broken off. As is customary, all that is known of the personality and fate of the queen is that she had several
daughters. After the 12th year of Akhenaten’s reign she is no longer mentioned, presumably because she died.
That her name has become so widely known in the field of Egyptology, and that she is still admired and honored is
due to the accident that this bust remained preserved in the ruins of a sculpture’s workshop and – most of all- due
to an artist, who transformed Nefertiti’s face into a timeless ideal of beauty” (Hagen and Hagen, Egypt 48). The
queen is shown here “with her trademark tall blue crown, which she is depicted wearing when undertaking
symbolic royal duties- even smiting foreign enemies- normally reserved for the sovereign himself” (Fletcher 95).
W Death mask of Tutankhamen, from the innermost coffin in his tomb (Thebes), c. 1323 BCE, gold
with inlay of semiprecious stones
Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter/ crook and flail/ soft, serene expression/ nemes/ uraeus
1. “After Akhenaten’s death, the pharaoh Tutankhamon (reigned c. 1336=1327 BCE) returned to the
worship of Amon, as his name indicates. He died at eighteen and his only claim to historical significance
is the fact that his tomb, with its four burial chambers, was discovered intact. In 1922 an English
Egyptologist, Howard Carter, was excavating in the Valley of the Kings, to the west of the Nile and the
New Kingdom temples of Karnak and Luxor. To the delight of his patron Lord Carnarvon, Carter found
one tomb whose burial chamber and treasury room had not yet been plundered. It yielded some five
thousand works of art and other objects, including the mummified body of the king himself” (Adams, Art
Across Time 103). “Tutankhamon’s mummy wore a solid gold portrait mask. It was inlaid with blue glass
in imitation of lapis lazuli, a blue stone considered valuable by the Egyptians because it had to be
imported from Afghanistan or Iran. Three coffins, one inside the other, protected the mummy. All three
had the form of the king as Osiris. The two outer coffins were made of gilded wood; the innermost coffin
was sold gold and weighed 243 pounds. The mummy and its three coffins rested inside a large
rectangular stone sarcophagus” (103).
2. “A comparison of Tutankhamon’s effigy with the images produced under Akhenaten shows that the
rigid, frontal pose has returned. The natural spaces are closed- for example, around the head and neck
by the nemes headdress and around the body by virtue of the crossed arms and tight drapery- thus
restoring the conventional iconography of kingship. Like Akhenaton, Tutankhamon holds the crook and flail. Protecting his head are
two goddesses, Wadjet the cobra and Nekhbet the vulture. The wings wrapped around Tutankhamon’s upper body belong to the
deities on his forehead, and their claws hold signs indicating the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt. In this iconography,
Tutankhamon, like Narmer nearly two thousand years earlier, is represented as being under divine protection and as the ruler over a
vast domain. The hieroglyphs in the vertical band running from his hands to his feet include an apotropaic frontal eye (designed to
avert evil) and his cartouche” (103). “Over forty years after Carter’s discovery, the contents of Tutankhamon’s tomb became one of the
world’s most popular and widely-traveled museum exhibitions, appearing in Paris, London, Russia, and the United States. But Lord
Carnarvon did not live to see it. Just months after Tutankhamon’s tomb was open, Carter’s patron died of an infection, which the
popular press attributed to the mummy’s curse” (103). On a painted wooden casket from the tomb of Tutankhamun, the king is
shown “triumphing over the forces of chaos, here represented by Syrian adversaries. The Egyptians are portrayed in neat, welldisciplined ranks, while the enemy troops are shown in total disarray to suggest their incompetence and inferiority” (Fletcher 86).
“Our knowledge of the magnificence of a pharaoh’s funerary regalia comes from Tut’s tomb. The contents ranged from baskets of
fruits and garlands of flowers still tinged with color, a folding camp bed and a toy-box, to four chariots completely covered with gold”
(Strickland 11). “More than 20 people connected with unsealing the tomb died under mysterious circumstances, giving rise to lurid
‘curse of the pharaoh’ stories” (11). “In life, King Tutankhamen, who died at the age of 19, was unimportant. Yet in death and 3,000
years later, he became the most celebrated pharaoh of all. His tomb is the only one to be discovered in its near-original condition”
(11).
38
Unit ONE: Egyptian
STUDY GUIDE
W Last Judgment of Hu-Nefer (Thebes), c. 1290-1280 BCE, painted papyrus scroll
Book of the Dead/ Hall of Judgment/ papyrus scrolls/ Maat/ Anubis/ Ammit/ Thoth/ receiving the reward of
eternal life
1. “By the time of the New Kingdom, the Egyptians had come to believe
that only a person free from sin could enjoy an afterlife. The dead were
thought to undergo a ‘last judgment’ consisting of two tests presided over
by Osiris and supervised by Anubis, the overseer of funerals and
cemeteries, represented as a man with a jackal’s head. The deceased
were first questioned by a delegation of deities about their behavior in life.
Then their hearts, which the Egyptians believed to be the seat of the soul,
were weighed on a scale against an ostrich feather, the symbol of Maat,
goddess of truth” (Stokstad, Art History 124). “These beliefs gave rise to
one specific funerary practice especially popular among the nonroyal
classes. Family members would commission papyrus scrolls containing
magical texts or spells to help the dead survive the tests, and they had
the embalmers place the scrolls among the wrappings of their loved ones’
mummified bodies. Early collectors of Egyptian artifacts referred to such
scrolls, often beautifully illustrated, as Books of the Dead. A scene from
a Dynasty 19 example, created for a man named Hunefer, shows him at
three successive stages in his induction into the afterlife” (124).
2. “At the left, Anubis leads him by the hand to the spot where he will
weigh his heart, contained in a tiny jar, against the ‘feather of Truth.’
Maat herself appears atop the balancing arm of the scales wearing the
feather as a headdress. A monster- part crocodile, part lion, and part
hippopotamus- watches eagerly for a sign from the ibis-headed god
Thoth, who prepares to record the result of the weighing. This creature is
Ammit, the dreaded ‘Eater of the Dead.’ But the ‘Eater’ is left to go
hungry. Hunefer passes the test, and on the right Horus presents him to Osiris” (124-125).“The god of the underworld sits on a throne
floating on a lake of natron, the substance used to preserve the flesh of the deceased from decay. The four sons of Horus, each of whom
was entrusted with the care of one of the deceased’s vital organs, stand atop a huge lotus blossom rising up out of the lake. The
goddesses Nephthys and Isis stand behind the throne, supporting the god’s left arm with a tender gesture similar to the one seen in the
Old Kingdom sculpture of Menkaure and his queen. In the top register, Hunefer makes his appearance in the afterlife, kneeling before the
nine gods of Heliopolis- the sacred city of the sun god Ra- and five personifications of the life-sustaining principles” (125).
3. “Life was short in ancient times. Few people could expect to live beyond their twenties. All hoped to escape the ‘Eater’ and live on
eternally in the company of the gods…. Here the souls of the deceased were though to be subjected to a ‘last judgment’ to determine
whether they were worthy of eternal life. Osiris was traditionally depicted as a mummified man wrapped in a white linen shroud. His
other trappings are those of an Egyptian king. He wears the double crown, incorporating those of both Upper and Lower Egypt, a false
beard, and a wide beaded collar, and he brandishes the symbolic crook and flail in front of his chest. The figure in the center combining a
man’s body with the head of an ibis, a wading bird related to the heron, is the god Thoth. He here functions as a sort of court
stenographer- appropriately, for he was revered as the inventor of hieroglyphic writing” (125).
4. Another painting from Hunefer’s Book of the Dead, “illustrates the Opening of the Mouth ceremony, which ritually ‘opened the mouth’ of
the dead body and restored its ability to breathe, feel, hear, see, and speak. In this scene, described in the rows of hieroglyphics at the
top, the ritual is performed on the Nineteenth Dynasty mummy of the scribe Hunefer. Reading the image from left to right, we see a priest
in a leopard skin, an altar, and two priests in white garments with upraised ritual objects- a hook, a bull’s leg, and a knife. Two mourning
women are directly in front of the upright mummy. Behind the mummy is Anubis, the jackal-head mortuary god. The two forms behind
him are a stele, covered with hieroglyphics and surmounted by a representation of Hunefer appearing before a god, and a stylized tomb
façade with a pyramid on top” (Adams, Art Across Time 100). “Note the similarity between the iconography of the power-revealing scene at
the top of the stele and that on the Law Code of Hammurabi. Both are images of Machtkunst, and signify communication between the god
and a mortal. In both, the seated god combines a frontal view and profile pose, while the smaller mortal- as if commanding less space- is
more nearly in profile” (100).
5. “The ancient Egyptians placed these with their dead in order to help them pass through the dangers of the Underworld and attain an
afterlife of bliss in the Fields of Reeds, the Egyptian heaven. These papyri contain altogether nearly two hundred individual spells, or
chapters, although no one example has all of them. The texts were known to the ancient Egyptians as the Chapters of Coming Forth by
Day, for they largely concerned the freedom granted to the spirit forms to come and go as they pleased in the afterlife” (Caygill 61). “During
the Middle Kingdom funerary beliefs and practices were democratized: a guaranteed afterlife became open to all. From the New Kingdom
onwards Books of the Dead became a regular part of the funerary equipment and every Egyptian who could afford a copy was buried with
it close at hand. The wealthy might commission an expert scribe to produce their own personal choice of chapters. Some made do with a
prepared text with spaces for the insertion of their names and titles. The papyri were then placed on or in the coffin, inside a wooden
statuette of the funerary god Osiris, or even inside the statuette’s hollow plinth or among the folds of the mummy’s bandages” (61). “In the
spell Hunefer declares: I have not caused pain, I have not made hungry, I have not made to weep, I have not killed, I have not commanded
to kill, I have not made suffering for anyone” (62).
39
Unit ONE: African
STUDY GUIDE
A Africa
B Head from the Nok culture, c. 500 BCE-200
CE, terracotta
Nok culture/ problems of preservation of African
art/ stylization vs. naturalism
1. “The second largest continent in the world, Africa is a land of
enormous diversity. Geographically, it ranges from enormous
deserts to tropical rain forest, from flat grasslands to spectacular
mountains and dramatic rift valleys. Human diversity in Africa is
equally impressive.
More than 1,000 languages have been
identified, grouped by scholars into five major linguistic families”
(Stokstad 911).
1. “Egypt’s rise coincided with the emergence of the Sahara, the
largest desert in the world, from the formerly lush grasslands of
north Africa. Some of the oldest known African art, images
inscribed and painted in the mountains of the central Sahara
beginning around 8,000 BCE, bears witness to this gradual
transformation as well as to the lives of the pastoral peoples who
once lived in the region” (Stokstad, Art History 911).
2. “Before the nineteenth century, the most important outside
influence in Africa had been the religious culture of Islam, which
spread gradually and largely peacefully through much of West
Africa and along the East African coast. The modern era, in
contrast, begins with European explorers and subsequent
colonization of the African continent, developments that brought
traditional African societies into sudden and traumatic contact
with the ‘modern’ world that Europe had largely created” (911).
naturalistic sculpture in the city of Ife/ the Yoruba/
the “oni”/ scarification/ holes along the scalp
2. “As the grassland died, its populations most likely migrated in
search of pasture and arable land. Many probably made their
way to the Sudan, the broad band of savanna south of the
Sahara. During the sixth century BCE, knowledge of iron
smelting spread across the Sudan, enabling large and more
complex societies to emerge. One such society was the ironworking Nok culture, which arose in present-day Nigeria around
500 BCE and lasted until about 200 CE. Terracotta figures
created by Nok artists are the earliest known sculpture from
sub-Saharan Africa” (911).
1. “Following the disappearance of the Nok culture, the region of
present-day Nigeria remained a vigorous cultural and artistic
center. The naturalistic sculpture created by the artists of the city
of Ife … arose in the southern, forested part of that region by
about 800 CE… Ife was, and remains, the sacred city of the
Yoruba people. Yoruba myth tells how at Ife the gods descended
from heaven on iron chains to create the world” (Stokstad, Art
History 469).
3. “A few of the Nok sculptures show basic forms which would
be more expected in wood: the mouth or beard forms a block
projecting from the face, incised lines often mark the teeth and
the edges of the lip. It appears that the Nok sculptures in
terracotta are derived from a tradition of wood sculpture which
is unknown to us since no carved wood of such antiquity has
been preserved, not can we guess how far back such a tradition
might go” (Willett 68).
2. “Although the line of Ife kings, or onis, continues unbroken
from that time to the present, the knowledge of how these works
were used has been lost.
When archeologists showed the
sculpture to members of the contemporary oni’s court, however,
they identified symbols of kingship on sculpture that had been
worn within living memory, indicating that the figures represent
rulers” (469). “The modeling of the flesh is supremely sensitive,
especially the subtle transitions around the nose and mouth. The
lips are full and delicate, and the eyes are strikingly similar in
shape to those of some modern Yoruba. The face is covered with
thin, parallel scarification patterns (decorations made by scarring)
in a style that was still occasionally seen on Nigerians until
recently” (470).
4. “The human figures from Nok are represented in a stylized
manner whereas the animal figures are remarkably naturalistic,
although both share the same kind of eye” (72). According to a
modern Guro carver, he “never carved a human face so that it
resembled any individual for fear of being accused of witchcraft;
very possibly a similar idea accounts for the stylized treatment of
human beings by the Nok sculptors, for they were clearly
capable of naturalistic sculpture, as the animal figures show”
(72).
C Head of a King (Ife), c. 13th century CE, brass
5. “The human head is usually
cylindrical, spherical, or conical in
form, with an elaborate hair-style
and ears placed in a great variety of
positions. The lips, ears, nostrils
and the pupils of the eyes are
usually pierced.
The eye is
represented as a segment of a
sphere, with the upper lid usually
horizontal, the lower lid forming a
segment
of
a
circle,
which
occasionally approximates to a
triangle. The sweep of the curve of
the lower lid is counterbalanced,
often very precisely, in the curve of the eyebrow. The form of the
eye is very similar to that on modern Yoruba gelede masks” (69).
3. “Holes along the scalp apparently
permitted hair or perhaps a beaded veil
to be attached. Large holes around the
base of the neck may have allowed the
head itself to be attached to a wooden
mannequin
for
display
during
memorial services for a deceased oni.
The mannequin was probably dressed
in the oni’s robes and his crown was
probably attached to the head by
means of the holes along the hairline”
(470). “The naturalism of Ife sculpture
contradicted
everything
Europeans
thought they knew about African art.
The German scholar who ‘discovered’
Ife sculpture in 1910 suggested that it had been created not by
Africans but by survivors from the legendary lost island of Atlantis”
(471).
6. “Each of the large buns of its elaborate hairstyle is pierced
with a hole that may have held ornamental feathers. Other Nok
figures boast large quantities of beads and other prestige
ornaments” (Stokstad, Art History 469).
40
Unit ONE: African
STUDY GUIDE
D Head of an oba (Benin), c. 1700-1897 CE, brass
E The British and the Benin
Benin/ an “oba”/ benefits of trade/ coral-bead
necklaces
1. “Benin came into contact with Portugal in the late
fifteenth century. The two kingdoms established cordial
relations and carried on an active trade, at first in ivory
and other forest products but eventually in slaves. Benin
flourished until 1897, when, in reprisal for the massacre
of a party of trade negotiators, British troops sacked and
burned the royal palace, sending the oba into an exile
from which he did not return until 1914. The palace was
1. “Ife was probably the artistic parent of the great citystate of Benin, which arose some 150 miles to the
southeast. According to oral histories, the earliest kings of
Benin belonged to the Ogiso, or Skyking, dynasty. After a
long period of misrule, however, the people of Benin asked
the oni of Ife for a new ruler.
The oni sent Prince
Oranmiyan, who founded a new dynasty in 1170 CE. Some
two centuries later, the fourth king, or oba, of Benin
decided to start a tradition of memorial sculpture like that
of Ife, and he sent to Ife for a master metal caster named
Iguegha. The tradition of casting memorial heads for the
shrines of royal ancestors endures among the successors of
Oranmiyan to this day” (Stokstad, Art History 471-472).
later rebuilt, and the present-day oba continues the dynasty
started by Oranmiyan” (Stokstad, Art History 472).
2. “The British invaders discovered shrines to deceased obas
filled with brass heads, bells, and figures. They also found
wooden rattles and enormous ivory tusks carved with images of
kings, court attendants, and sixteenth-century Portuguese
soldiers. The British appropriated the treasure as war booty,
making no effort to not which head came from which shrine. As
a result, they destroyed evidence that would have helped
establish the relative age of the heads and determine a
chronology for the evolution of Benin style.
Nevertheless,
scholars have managed to piece together a chronology from
other evidence” (472).
2. “All of the heads include representations of coral-bead
necklaces, which have formed part of the royal costume from
earliest times to the present day… During the Late Period, the
necklaces form a tall, cylindrical mass that greatly increases the
weight of the sculpture. Broad, horizontal flanges, or projecting
edges, bearing small images cast in low relief ring the base of the
Late Period statues, adding still more weight. The increase in size
and weight of Benin memorial heads over time may reflect the
growing power and wealth flowing to the oba from Benin’s
expanding trade with Europe” (472). “Coral, which derives from
the Mediterranean Sea, was an important feature of Benin royal
costumes and was believed to make the king’s words come to
fruition. Historically at Benin such beads were sewn together with
elephant-tail hair, an animal closely identified with both royalty
and physical force” (Blier 47).
F Mounted King and Attendants (Benin), c.
1550-1680, bronze
high relief cast sculpture/ use of hierarchical
proportion/ flanking figures used to create a
symmetrical composition
1. “Among the most
remarkable
visual
records of court life are
the hundreds of brass
plaques, each about 2
feet square, that once
decorated the walls and
columns of the royal
palace. Produced during
the Middle Period, the
plaques are modeled in
relief, sometimes in such
high relief that the
figures
are
almost
freestanding” (Stokstad,
Art History 472-3).
3. “The iron irises of the
eyes are said to convey
both
the
mystical
authority of indigenous
forged metal and the
enduring stare of one
whose nature is in part
divine (one of the local
names for the iris is ‘ray or
menace
of
the
eye.’)
Parallel iron bars set into
the forehead invest the
head with the sacrosanct
potency of indigenous iron;
sacrifices
aimed
at
renewing royal power are
placed on the bars. The
raised
marks
(ikharo)
along the eyebrow are a
form of cultural marker,
three for men, four denoting women or foreigners” (45).
2. “The powerful king of the tribe is shown on horseback.
Two servants hold shields over his head to protect him
from the sun. Two other figures support his hands, while
another supports the king’s feet with his head. The
sculptor has made the king the largest figure,
emphasizing his importance. Each pair of servants is
shown proportionately smaller to indicate their lesser
importance. The size of the main character in relation to
the others is as effective as a spotlight in emphasizing his
importance” (Mittler 46).
4. “The art of Benin is a royal art, for only the oba could
commission works in brass. Artisans who served the court
lived in a separate quarter of the city and were organized
into guilds” (Stokstad, Art History 472).
41
Unit ONE: African
STUDY GUIDE
G An Ivory Mask from Benin
1. “Obas also commissioned important works in ivory. One example is a beautiful ornamental mask that represents an
iyoba, or queen mother. The woman who had borne the previous oba’s first male child (and thus the mother of the
current oba), the iyoba ranked as the senior female member of the court. This mask may represent Idia, the first and
best-known iyoba. Idia was the mother of Esigie, who ruled as oba from 1504 to 1550 CE. She is particularly
remembered for raising an army and using her magical powers to help her son defeat his enemies” (Stokstad, Art
History 473-4).
2. “The mask was carved as a belt or hip ornament and was probably worn at the oba’s waist. Its pupils were originally
inlaid with iron, as were the scarification patterns on the forehead. The necklace represents heads of Portuguese
soldiers with beards and flowing hair. Like Idia, the Portuguese helped Esigie expand his kingdom. Idia, the
Portuguese helped Esigie expand his kingdom. In the crown, more Portuguese heads alternate with figures of mudfish,
which in Benin iconography symbolized Olokun, the Lord of the Great Waters. Mudfish live on the riverbank,
mediating between water and land, just as the oba, who is viewed as semidivine, mediates between the human world
and the supernatural world of Olokun” (474).
H Abogunde of Ede. Shango shrine figure holding a dance staff, Yoruba (Nigeria), nineteenth century,
wood and beads
Yoruba/ orisha/ Shango/ oshe shango staff/ balancing a double axe
1. “The Yoruba peoples of south-western Nigeria and southern Benin are perhaps the most urban of all African groups. By the eleventh
century AD, their founding city, Ile-Ife, was already a thriving metropolis, the center of an influential city-state. Over the ensuing
centuries, numerous other Yoruba city-states both major and minor evolved, all claiming descent from Ile-Ife. This urban tradition
continues to the present day, when Yoruba cities may number in the hundreds of thousands” (Visona 228).
2. “The Yoruba venerate a perplexing number of gods, orisha. Some orisha are primordial, created in the beginning of time by the Great
God, Olorun… Some natural powers such as rivers, mountains, stones, or thunder and lightning may be perceived as orisha, and heroes
may be apotheosized as well. The god Shango embodies both of these ideas in that while he is the personification of thunder, he is also a
deified culture hero, the fourth king of the Oyo empire. The very concept of orisha suggests an endless number, and there is always the
possibility that new ones will make themselves known to a particular human community or even to a particular family or individual.
Thus an orisha acknowledged in one part of Yorubaland may not be known elsewhere, or may be thought of quite differently” (245-6).
3. “Shango was the fourth king of Old Oyo, and only later became the god of thunder and lightning. His reign on earth ended when he
was banished from Oyo by the superior power of the hero Gbonka. Shango hanged himself in the forest in shame, but rather than dying,
he returned to his place in the sky. From here, he keeps an eye on humanity, and still sends his thunderstorms…. Shango is often
depicted with a ram’s head and horns. The sound of thunder is said to be the sound of a ram bellowing. Because he is thought to punish
the guilty by striking them with his thunderbolts, Shango is regarded as the god of justice and fair play. The double-headed ax shown
here symbolizes the thunderbolt. It signifies ‘My strength cuts both ways,’ meaning that no one is beyond the reach of his authority.
Devotees of Shango, possessed by the god, hold a staff representing the god’s thunder-ax as they dance to the sound of the bata drumsaid to have been invented by Shango to terrify his opponents” (Philip 86).
4. “This splendid carving for a Shango shrine may be by the master Abogunde of Ede, whose work achieved recognition
in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The faces of his figures are always intense, expressing the extreme
concentration needed to bear the burden of the orisha’s power. As the child holds on to his mother, so the devotee
grasp her oshe while she kneels before her Lord. Ino offspring and dance wand, she possesses images of herself; her
inner life is made manifest” (Fagg 158).
5. “The dance wand, oshe Shango, is carried by devotees of orisha Shango at the annual festival for their god and on
other ritual occasions. Although it is one of the most important ritual objects of the Shango cult, there is little
information in the many myths and stories associated with Shango about the origin or iconography of the oshe staff…
The power of Shango is a dangerous force, just as the libidinal drive may prove dangerous to the possibilities of creative
sexual relationships or the arrogant use of military power to political leadership. The power of Shango must be carried
with great care. Indeed, carrying such power upon one’s head is a dramatic metaphor. Ori is the Yoruba word for
‘head’ and for one’s ‘personal destiny.’ It is one’s ori, one’s destiny, as a worshipper of Shango, to carry, to bear the
burden of, Shango’s great power- a power that can give birth and create empires, but that constantly suffers the
temptation to exceed its proper limits. And when it does so, it destroys that which it has created” (60).
6. “Shango staffs visualize the unpredictable and, at times, violent power of the deity through the thunderbolts, edun
ara, balanced on the head of his female devotee depicted on the staff. And yet she carries a child on her back, giving testimony to her
power as a woman who has been blessed by Shango” (90). “On her head the devotee balances a double axe to suggest the act in Shango
initiation in which the initiate balances a vessel of fire on top of her head, to demonstrate Shango’s calmness in the face of danger. The
devotee’s nudity alludes to ritual purity. In her hands she holds her own oshe shango staff. The triangular forms at the top of the staff
represent the stones sacred to Shango. The red and white beads suggest Shango’s hot fire and cooling rain” (Blier 93).
42
Unit ONE: African
STUDY GUIDE
I A figure of Eshu of the Yoruba (Nigeria), twentieth century, wood and cowrie shells
Eshu and Orunmila/ long braids of cowrie shells/Eshu’s head/ a whistle and the sucking of the thumb
1. “Two primordial orisha, Orunmila and Eshu, serve as mediators between gods and humans.
They may be seen as embodiments of the principles of certainty and uncertainty. The twosome
are intimately connected in the minds of the Yoruba, for order does not exist without disorder, and
disorder requires order by definition. Orunmila, the orisha of destiny, embodies certainty, fate,
equilibrium, and order. In Yoruba belief, each person chooses his or her destiny in the presence of
the Creator God prior to birth. Orunmila can help people to gain knowledge of their destinies as
they live them out. Through him, they can learn which forces control their future, and how to
manipulate these forces in their favor. Uncertainty, chance, violence, and trouble define Eshu.
Ironically, the disorderly and mischievous Eshu is also the messenger of the gods, and to gain
Orunmila’s attention, one must first approach the trickster Eshu” (Visona 246).
2. “While Orunmila is never depicted in shrines or on divination paraphernalia, Eshu is portrayed
repeatedly. The only Yoruba orisha consistently represented, Eshu appears on houseposts,
lintels, doors, and bowls. As a go-between for gods and human, his image embellishes shrines.
As the god of the market place, the gateway, and the crossroads, he is often represented in these
places as well. Figural representations in public places, however, are rare. Instead, a piece of
unworked stone usually suffices to represent the god, and even then it may be buried beneath the
earth or in a wall” (248).
3. “The dance wand shown here once decorated a shrine for Eshu. It would have been used in
processions and festivals, danced with by a worshiper in honor of the god. While such wands are
usually carved with a figure of a worshiper, the figure here may actually represent Eshu himself.
Long strands of beads and cowries, once used as money by the Yoruba, cascade from the neck in reference to the wealth
brought by this god of the market place. The long, projecting hairdo, common to most Eshu figures, arches up and away
from the head. Such phallic or blade-like coiffures refer to Eshu’s involvement in male sexuality and romantic
entanglements. Miniature gourds along the crest of the hair allude to the powerful medicines at Eshu’s disposal. The
whistle or Y-shaped flute held to the lips suggests Eshu’s role as supernatural herald. Although this figure is male, similar
ones may be carved as female, for the enigmatic Eshu may be represented as either sex” (250).
J Twin Figures created by the Yoruba
1. “In all societies everywhere, the death of a child is a traumatic event. Many African peoples believe that a dead child
continues its life in a spirit world. The parents’ care and affection may reach it there, often through the medium of art.
The Yoruba people of Nigeria have one of the highest rates of twin births in the world. The birth of twins is a joyous
occasion, yet it is troubling as well, for twins are more delicate than single babies, and one or both may well die. When a
Yoruba twin dies, the parents consult a diviner, a specialist in ritual and spiritual practices, who may tell them that an
image of a twin, or ere ibeji, must be carved” (Stokstad, Art History 913).
2. “The mother cares for the ‘birth’ of this image by sending the artist food while the figure
is being carved. When the image is finished, she brings the artist gifts. Then, carrying
the figure as she would a living child, she dances home accompanied by the singing of the
neighborhood women. She places the figure in a shrine in her bedroom and lavishes care
upon it, feeding it, dressing it with beautiful textiles and jewelry, anointing it with
cosmetic oils. The Yoruba believe that the spirit of a dead twin thus honored may bring
its parents wealth and good luck” (914).
3. “Like most objects that Africans produced to encourage the birth and growth of
children, the figures emphasize health and well-being. They have beautiful, glossy
surfaces, rings of fat as evidence that they are well fed, and the marks of mature
adulthood that will one day be achieved. They represent hope for the future, for survival,
and for prosperity” (914). “As with other African sculpture, patterns of use result in
particular signs of wear. The facial features of ere ibeji are often worn down or even
obliterated by repeated feedings and washings. Camwood powder applied as a cosmetic builds to a thick crust in areas
that are rarely handled. Even the blue dye regularly applied to the hair eventually builds to a thin layer” (913).
43
Unit ONE: African
STUDY GUIDE
K Ancestral Couple (?) (Dogon, Mali), c. 19th century,
L Reliquary guardian figure of the Kota
1. “The western Sudan is the region embraced within the great arc of the
Niger River. To the north, it extends to the edges of the Sahara; to the
south it borders the forested lands of the Atlantic Coast. The ancient
West African empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai all extended into this
region… The ancient empires were partially Islamicized from about the
tenth century AD. Like the Bamana, however, most of the peoples…- the
Dogon, the Senufo, and four of the Burkinabe peoples- resisted Islam and
its way of life for centuries, preserving their religions and other cultural
traditions into the twentieth century” (Visona 130).
1. “Adjacent to the Fang in the Upper Ogowe River area of
eastern Gabon and into the Congo Republic live the Kota
peoples. The Kota are actually a number of groups of
peoples with common cultural traits” (Visona 358).
wood
Dogon/ reverence for ancestors/ a unified human couple
with scarification/ a larger male
2. “The Dogon migrated into the Bandiagara region mainly in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries… In earlier centuries the Dogon built their
villages on top of the Bandiagara escarpment, on its rocky bluffs, or
snuggled up under the vertical cliff faces of its steep talus slopes. Such
difficult-to-reach locations afforded some protection from periodic
invasions… After the French colonial government established control over
the region in the first decade of the twentieth century, many Dogon left
the cliffs for the more welcoming Seno plain. Today, a Dogon population
of nearly 300,000 is dispersed through some 700 villages, most of them
averaging fewer than 500 people.
Dogon country once supported
abundant wildlife- leopard, lion, antelope, crocodile, and other animalswhich the Dogon hunted and depicted in their art. The wildlife has
largely disappeared, however, and like other people in the region, the
Dogon now rely on agriculture. Excellent farmers, they manage to wrest
subsistence grain crops from poor soil in an area that receives little rain”
(132-3).
3. “The motif of a couple is so pervasive in Dogon art
that it most probably has symbolic significance. Yet
while it is tempting to link couples to themes of twinness and primordial couples featured in creation
legends (as has often been done), we have no testimony
from the Dogon themselves that such readings would
be valid” (135).
4. “The figures are virtually identical, to the point of
near androgyny.
The male is slightly larger and
dominates by virtue of his apparently protective
gesture…fingers resting on her breast. The man’s left
hand is connected to his genital area, suggesting
references to procreative powers. The woman carries a
child on her back (not visible in the photograph)
signaling her role as a nurturing mother” (135).
5. “Both torsos are elongated tubular shapes, and their articulations are
schematic and rectilinear rather than organic. Facial features too are
highly conventionalized” (135). Incised lines, “recalling scarification,
appear on the faces and torsos, reinforcing the rectilinear composition.
This schematic, geometric style is associated with the southern Dogon
region” (135).
6. “The work appears to be an idealized model of a nuclear family. Man
and woman are here seen as interdependent and complementary, ideas
expressed by their nearly identical portrayal, their unity on a common
base, the visual bridge of the man’s arm, and the rhythmic alternation of
positive and negative spaces of equal weight, as in the arm’s-width space
between arm and torso or the torso-width space between man and
woman. At the base of the sculpture, four smaller figures help support
the stool the couple rests on. These may refer to the support that
ancestors or other spirits are believed to provided for the living” (135).
44
(Gabon), nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, wood, copper, iron, and brass
the Kota of central Africa/ funerary figures/
mbulu ngulu/ bwete/ use of metal to indicate
importance/ convex and concave faces
2. “The Kota keep bones and other relics of extraordinary
ancestors in baskets or bundles called bwete. Bound into
a packet and lashed to the base of a carved figure, the
bones formed a stable base that allowed the image to
stand more or less upright. The type of bundle varied
according to location. The figures, called mbulu-ngulu,…
served as protectors of the bundle” (358).
3. “All are based upon the human face, even though they
are abstracted and refer to non-human spiritual forces.
All are carved of wood, then have copper or brass
sheeting or strips applied to the surfaces. This shining
material both attracts our attention and acts as a shield,
and it is possible that it was seen as being able to ‘throw
back’ evil forces… The forehead of the figure may
complete the concavity of the oval face, as in the figure on
the right, or it may bulge out in counter play, as in the
figure on the left. The facial features are summarily
indicated.
Here, disc-shaped eyes were created by
applying metal bosses and the nose is a slim pyramidal
shape. The mouth is simply represented or left out
entirely” (358-9).
4. Emphasizing the plane of
the face, this reliquary figure
is “almost two-dimensional in
conception.
A distinctly
concave, oval face is framed
by a transverse, crescentshaped crest above and two
lateral wings that suggest a
hairdo. Cylindrical pegs drop
from the wings, suggesting ear
ornaments.
Sheet metal in
alternating segments of brass
and copper forms a crossshape on the face and
completely covers the front of
the crescent and the wings. A
long,
cylindrical
neck
connects
the
facial
configuration to an open
lozenge, which can be read as
the arms of the figure, but
which was once used to lash
the mbulu-ngulu to its bwete
bundle” (359).
5. “Metal, usually copper or copper alloy, formed the
basis of currency in most of Central Africa prior to the
colonial imposition of European coinage. Copper thus
clothes these forms in prosperity and wealth, as well as
giving them a reflective, gleaming surface” (359).
Unit ONE: African
STUDY GUIDE
M Power figures of the Kongo culture (Zaire), 19th century, wood, nails, pins, blades, and other
materials
Kongo culture/ power figures (nkisi nkonde)/bilongo/ part of a healing or oath-taking process/ concept of the
community as the artist
1. “Among the most potent images of power in African art are the nkisi, or spirit, figures made by
the Kongo and Songye peoples of Zaire. The best known of these are the large wooden nkonde,
which bristle with nails, pins, blades, and other sharp objects. A nkisi nkonde begins its life as a
simple, unadorned wooden figure that may be purchased from a carver at a market or
commissioned by a diviner on behalf of a client who has encountered some adversity or who faces
some important turning point in his or her life” (Stokstad, Art History 917).
2. “Drawing on vast knowledge, the diviner prescribes certain magical/medicinal ingredients,
called bilongo, that will help the client’s problem. These bilongo are added to the figure, either
mixed with white clay and plastered directly onto the body or suspended in a packet from the
neck or waist. The bilongo transform the nkonde into a living being with frightful powers, ready to
attack the forces of evil on behalf of a human client. Bilongo ingredients are drawn from plants,
animals, and minerals, and may include human hair, nail clippings, and other materials. Each
ingredient has a specific role. Some bring the figure to life by embodying the spirit of an ancestor
or a soul trapped by a malevolent power. Others endow the figure with specific powers or focus
the powers in a particular direction often through metaphor. For example, the Kongo admire the
quickness and agility of a particular species of mouse. Tufts of this mouse’s hair included in the
bilongo act as a metaphor for quickness, ensuring that the nkisi nkonde will act rapidly when its
powers are activated” (917).
3. “To activate the powers, clients drive in a nail or other pointed object to get the nkonde’s attention and prick it into
action. A nkisi nkonde may serve many private and public functions. Two warring villages might agree to end their
conflict by swearing an oath of peace in the presence of the nkonde and then driving a nail into it to seal an agreement.
Two merchants might agree to a partnership by driving two small nails into the figure side by side and then make their
pact binding by wrapping the nails together with a stout card. Someone accused of a crime might swear his innocence
and drive in a nail, asking the nkonde to destroy him if he lied. A mother might invoke the power of the nkonde to heal
her sick children. The objects driven into the nkonde may also operate metaphorically. For example, the Kongo use a
broad blade called a baaku to cut into palm tress, releasing sap that will eventually be fermented into palm wine. The
word ‘baaku’ derives from the word ‘baaku’, which means both ‘extract’ and ‘destroy.’ Thus tiny replicas of baaku driven
into the nknode are believed to destroy those who use evil power” (918).
4. “The word ‘nkonde’ shares a stem with konda, meaning ‘to hunt,’ for the figure is quick to hunt down a client’s enemies and destroy
them. The nkonde here stands in a pose called pakalala, a stance of alertness like that of a wrestler challenging an opponent in the ring.
Other nkonde figures hold a knife or spear in an upraised hand, ready to strike or attack” (918).
5. “Nkisi nkonde provide a dramatic example of the ways in which African sculpture are transformed by use. When first carved, the figure
is ‘neutral,’ with no particular significance or use. Magical materials applied by a diviner transform the figure into a power being, at the
same time modifying its form. Each client who activates that power further modifies the statue. While the object is empowered, nails may
also be removed as part of a healing or oath-taking process. And when the figure’s particular powers are no longer needed, the additions
may all be stripped away to be replaced with different magical materials that give the same figure a new function. The result is that many
hands play a role in creating the work of art we see in a museum. The person we are likely to label as the ‘artist’ is only the initial creator.
Many others modify the work, and in their hands the figure becomes a visual document of the history of the conflicts and afflictions that
have threatened the community” (917).
6. “According to oral tradition, Kongo was founded toward the end of the fourteenth century by a ruler named Nimi a Lukemi, who
established a dominion over the area around Mbanza Kongo, his capital south of the mouth of the Congo River. The kingdom grew
through alliances made by his successors, and by the time Portuguese explorers arrived in 1483 it had become perhaps the largest state
in Central Africa, a centrally organized nation with governors ruling over provinces on behalf of a king. A century later its expansion had
ended. Nevertheless, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the prestigious and powerful Kongo kingdom was known throughout
much of the world and sent diplomats to Europe and Brazil” (Visona 367).
7. Centered on the abdomen of many of these figures “is a bulging form where the substances that empower it have bean sealed in with
resin. The word used for belly also means ‘life,’ or ‘soul,’ and activating materials are most commonly placed there, though they may also
be placed at the top of the head, on the back, or between the legs. Called bilongo, activating substances include three main types of
ingredients: mineral from the land of the dead, items chosen for their names, and metaphorical materials. The most important minerals
include kaolin, the white clay closely linked to the world of the dead, and red ocher, whose red color refers symbolically to blood and
danger even as it signifies mediation of the powers of the dead to the living for both affliction and cure” (376).
45
Unit ONE: African
STUDY GUIDE
N Kente cloth of the Ashanti (Ghana), 20th
O Female mask of the Mende (Sierra Leone), wood
century, silk
Ashanti/ kente cloth/ restricted patterns
masks from the Mende/ the Sande society of women/ a
small closed mouth and downcast eyes
1. The Ashanti of Ghana, in West Africa, are
“renowned for the beauty of their woven textiles,
called kente. Ashanti weavers work on small, light,
horizontal looms that produce long, narrow strips of
cloth.
They begin by laying out the long warp
threads in a brightly colored pattern. Today the
threads are likely to be rayon. Formerly, however,
they were silk, which the Ashanti produced by
unraveling Chinese cloth obtained through European
trade. Weft threads are woven through the warp to
produce complex patterns, including double weaves
in which the front and back of the cloth display
different patterns. The long strips produced by the
loom are then cut to size and sewn together to form
large rectangles of finished kente cloth” (Stokstad, Art
History 920).
1. “The Mende and neighboring peoples of Sierra Leone and
Liberia are unique in Africa in that women actually wear masks
and costumes that conceal them totally from the audience in
attendance on the occasion of their performance. The Sande
society of the Mende is the women’s counterpart to the men’s
Poro Society. Both societies are associated with the initiation,
education, and acculturation of female and male youth,
respectively, into productive adulthood. Women leaders who
dance these masks serve as priestesses and judges during the
three years the women’s society controls the ritual calendar
(alternating with the men’s society in this role).
Women
maskers, also initiators, teachers, and mentors, help girl
novices with their transformations into educated and
marriageable women.
Masked spirits and their symbolic
attributes play a major role in girls’ initiations among the
Mende and several neighboring peoples” (Kleiner, Mamiya, and
Tansey 995).
2. “The kente cloth here began with a warp pattern
that alternates red, green, and yellow. The pattern is
known as oyokoman ogya da mu, meaning ‘there is
a fire between two factions of the Oyoko clan,’ and
refers to the civil war that followed the death of the
Ashanti king Osai Tutu in about 1730. Traditionally,
only the king of the Ashanti was allowed to wear this
pattern. Other complex patterns were reserved for
the royal family or members of the court.
Commoners who dared to wear a restricted pattern
were severely punished. In present-day Ghana the
wearing of kente and other traditional textiles has
been encouraged, and patterns are no longer
restricted to a particular group or person” (920-921).
3. “Each kente pattern has its own name. More than
three hundred warp and weft patterns have been
documented. Names may derive from visual features
of the cloth itself; for example, ‘liar’s cloth’
incorporates sharp shifts in the warp design and an
alternating movement from right to left. This cloth
was said to have been worn when the king held
court, as a means of questioning the veracity of the
people who came before him. Men usually wore and
still wear their kente cloth over the left shoulder and
upper arm, the left being the arm of potential danger”
(Blier 153).
2. “The male Poro society uses masked costumes called Gbini
and Goboi in their society rites, associating these
masqueraders with powerful bush spirits and the color white in
the domain of male chiefly powers.
The Sande society
associates their Sowie masks with water spirits and the color
black, which the society, in turn, connects with human skin
color and the civilized world. The women wear these helmet
masks on top of their heads as headdresses, with black raffia
and cloth costumes to hide the wearers’ identity during public
performances. Elaborate coiffures, shiny black color, dainty
triangular-shaped faces with slit eyes, rolls around the neck,
and actual and carved versions of amulets and various
emblems on the top commonly characterize Sowie masks.
These symbolize the adult women’s roles as wives, mothers,
providers for the family, and keepers of medicines for use
within the Sande society and the society at large” (995).
3. “Sand society patrons commission the masks from male
carvers, with the carver and patron determining the type of
mask needed for a particular society purpose. The Mende often
keep, repair, and reuse masks for many decades, thereby
preserving them as models for subsequent generations of
carvers” (995).
4. “With a glistening black surface evoking
ancestral spirits newly emergent from their
underwater homes (also symbolized by the
turtle on top) this mask and its parts refer to
ideals of female beauty, morality, and behavior.
A high broad forehead signifies wisdom and
success. Intricately woven or plaited hair is the
essence of harmony and order found in ideal
households, also symbolized by mats and
textiles. A small closed mouth and downcast
eyes indicate the silent, serious demeanor
expected of recent initiates” (993-994).
46
Unit ONE: Art of Prehistoric and Ancient Cultures
TIMELINE
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND PARALLELS:
c. 3500-2340 BCE Sumerian culture
c. 2000 BCE Gilgamesh epic written by the
develops with early pictographs,
Sumerians
wheeled carts, potter’s wheel,
c. 1792-1750 BCE reign of Hammurabi, the
bronze tools and weapons
Babylonian king
c. 3200-3000 BCE White Temple and
c. 1595 BCE Sack of Babylon by the Hittites
ziggurat at Uruk (in modern Iraq)
1550 BCE Ahmose I defeats the Hyksos
c. 3000-2920 BCE Unification of Upper and
(and begins the historical period
Lower Egypt under King Narmer
known as the Egyptian New
(the First Dynasty pharaoh
Kingdom)
Menes is now thought to have been
c. 1500 BCE – 1050 BCE Shang dynasty in
his son)
China
c. 3000 BCE First monumental architecture
c. 1473-1458 BCE Hatshepsut reigns in
built in Peru, of adobe and stone
Egypt
c. 2630-2611 BCE Djoser’s Stepped
1353-1335 BCE Akhenaton and the
Pyramid at Saqqara
Amarna period in Egypt
c. 2551-2472 BCE Khufu, Khafre, and
1333-1323 BCE reign of Tutankhamen in
Menkaure, builders of the Great
Egypt
Pyramids at Gizeh, Egypt, reigned
1290-1224 BCE reign of Ramses II in Egypt
1200 BCE If true, the most probable
c. 2550-1600 BCE Stonehenge, England
c. 2300 BCE Sargon, first king of Akkadian
date of the Biblical exodus under
dynasty, creates a vast
the prophet Moses (the first
Mesopotamian empire
piece of historical evidence of the
c. 2254-2218 BCE reign of Naram-Sin
existence of the Hebrews is a
c. 2150 BCE Guti invasion
stele from Egypt dated c.1235
2040 BCE Reunification of Egypt under
BCE (created during the rule of
Mentuhotep I (thus the beginning
the Pharaoh Merneptah)
of the Middle Kingdom)
47
Unit ONE: Art of Prehistoric and Ancient Cultures
883-859 BCE reign of Ashurnasirpal II of
Assyria
721-705 BCE reign of Sargon II of Assyria
668-627 BCE reign of Ashurbanipal of
Assyria
604-562 BCE Rule of Nebuchadnezzar II
(Neo-Babylonian)
600 BCE Beginnings of Maya civilization
587 BCE Destruction of Israel by King
Nebuchadnezzar of the NeoBabylonians (or Chaldeans)
c. 575 BCE Ishtar Gate built at Babylon
559-530 BCE reign of Cyrus II (or Cyrus the
Great) of Persia
525 BCE Persia conquers Egypt
522-486 BCE reign of Darius I of Persia
486-465 BCE reign of Xerxes of Persia
447-438 BCE Building of the Parthenon in
Athens under the rule of Pericles
331 BCE Battle of Issus between Alexander
the Great and Darius III
304-324 BCE reign of Ptolemy I in Egypt
34
TIMELINE
35
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