African Midterm Flashcards
Title: Oldowan Chopper,
Artist/Architect/Group: Homo Habilis
Date/Period: Early Stone Age
Title:
Acheulian Handaxe
Artist/Architect/Group: Homo Erectus
Date/Period: Middle Stone Age
Title: Microliths
Artist/Architect/Group: Homo Sapiens
Date/Period: Later Stone Age
Microlith- tiny stones
Title: Possible Ritual Scene
Artist/Architect/Group: Central Tanzanian Hunter-Gatherers
Date: Later Stone Age
- Human shapes
- Beginning to show depth and perspective
- People are becoming more knowledgeable and in touch with the land around them
Title: Humanoid Figures
Artist/Architect/Group: Central Tanzanian Agriculturalists
Date: 1,000-1,500 CE
- Thicker lines and less attention to detail
- Elimination of depth
- Landscape is less important, human relationship with the land
- The less you rely on the land, the less people painted them
- agricultrural rock art
Title: Geometric Cave Painting
Artist/Architect/Group: Central Tanzanian Agriculturalists
Date: 1,000-1,500 CE
Title: Elephant and Two Giraffes
Artist/Architect/Group: Large Wild Fauna Style
Date: 8,000 BCE
- Petroglif- chipping and etching into the stone as opposed to painting onto the stone
- Animals are in characteristic poses (elephant is drinking)
- Style is known through the feet of the animals, they are rounded and not naturalistic
Title: Masquerade Scene
Artist/Architect/Group/Style: Archaic Style
Date: 8,000-6,000 BCE
- Early evidence of early African masquerade
- outlined in white which is a style of this period
Title: Eland Scene
Artist/Architect/Group: San Hunter-Gatherers
Date: Later Stone Age
- Groups of people to the left and groups of eland to the right
- Eland was the most commonly depicted animal which says a lot about the San people
- San people- Hunter gathering group in Southern Africa
- People called the medicine men were under hallucinations and that is what is potentially described to the left
- The force and energy of the elands are entering the people to the left
Title: Linton Panel
Artist/Architect/Group: San Hunter-Gatherers
Date: Later Stone Age
- Relating to mental processes
- Process of production
- Tying images to the economic processes of these groups, trading, hunting, gathering, etc.
Title: Wall Painting at Nekhen Tomb
Artist/Architect/Group/Style: Pre-Dynastic Egypt
Date: 3,200 BCE
- two dimensional figures
- Figures are on boats and appears to be working
- Importance of the Nile (nothing would exist in Egypt without the Nile)
- Boats are larger because of their importance
- Figures drawn are similar to those found in neighboring cultures
Title: Palette of Narmer
Artist/Architect/Group: Early Dynastic Egypt
Date: 3,000 BCE
- used to grind paint that would be drawn around peoples eyes to protect from the sun
- Potenially used to cermony and not avid use due to the lack of ware and tear
- appears to be more decorative than other palattes
- divided into registers (lines)
- ground lines and lines to seperate scene
- designed to be legible, appearance and shapes of figures
- The large man is wearing the white crown of upper Egypt and is more dominate in size and position
- Large man on the backside is wearing the crown of Lower Egypt
- Stacked figures to the right are decapitated enemies
- The twisting necks is a sign of near eastern art
- Idealized figures, poses are unnaturalistic
- Composite style to make things more readable
- profile view from head and legs but front view of torso
Title: Possible Ritual Scene
Artist/Architect/Group: Imhotep
Date: 2,650 BCE (Old Kingdom Egypt)
- Looks like stacked mastaba, but makes a pyramid shape
- Limestone bricks
- Made for the king (pharroh)
- People continue to build larger pyramids
Title: Great Pyramids of Giza
Artist/Architect/Group: Old Kingdom Architects
Date: Dynasty IV
- The king is buried within the pyramid as opposed to under the mastaba like used to happen
- Filled with lots of treasures
- The pyramids are connected through underground passageways
Title: Khafre Enthroned
Artist/Architect/Group: Old Kingdom Sculptor
Date: 2,570 BCE
- Carved with a hardstone
- Has a bird on his head- connected through gods
- The statue was gridded out and then carved into which was usual for sculptors at the time
- The pose and the body are standard and not vouristic
Title: Menkaure and Queen
Artist/Architect/Group: Old Kingdom Sculptor
Date: 2500 BCE
- One foot is stepped forward, very straight poses, looking forward
- Sculptures are usually either standing or sitting
Title: The Seated Scribe
Artist/Architect/Group: Old Kingdom Sculptor
Date: 2650-2500 BCE
- the figure is not idealized, his body is realistic
- seen writing something down and is depicted in that way
Title: Portrait of Senwosret III
Artist/Architect/Group: Middle Kingdom Sculptor
Date: 1650 BCE (12 Dynasty)
- Lips are characterized
- Eyes are not a confident straight forward look
- Kings were maybe less powerful in later years
Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepshut, New Kingdom Sculptor, 1500 BCE
- To the right of the kings larger temple
- Built into the mountain side
House Shrine of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, New Kingdom Sculptor - Amarna Style, 1350 BCE
- Moves the capital
Stelae (Hawelt), Aksumite Empire, 300-400 CE,
- Kingdom of Aksum
- Erected monuments that were dedicated to kings and kings were buried under them
- The tall and more decorative, the more important the people
- False doors and windows are carved into the rock
- Rounded peak, holes at the top suggest something else was attached to the monument
- Generally made of wood and stone; the wood would be surrounded by stone, the organic and the inorganic; also were cost effective
Terracotta Heads, Nok, 800 BCE – 200 CE
- Most likely someone broke the heads of the bodies
- Most likely a female head because of the way the hair is done
- Nok style- triangular eyes and pierced
- Hair styles are advanced
- Probably someone who is royal based on the advanced style
- Maybe religious or ceremonial
Male Head, Sokoto, 500 BCE
- More naturalistic
- Semi circular eyes
- Pierced eyes and mouth maybe so that it doesn’t burst when fired
- Smaller facial features
Great Mosque at Kairouan, Hypostyle Mosque Form from Fatimid Empire, 836-875 CE
- Generally square plans with columns
- Built on a former Byzantine site and reused the columns
Mosque Architecture
- Courtyard- Sahn, needed to be large in order to hold many people in prayer
- Niche- Mihrab, shows the direction of Mecca
- Tower- Minaret- the tower where someone would read the prayer to the city
- Dome- Qubba- symbolic of the vault of heaven
Lustreware Bowl, Fatimid Empire,. 1000 CE
- Luster painted items was very popular at this time in this area of northern Africa
- Islamic script along the bottom
Folio from Blue Qur’an, Fatimid Empire Sculptor, 850-950 CE,
Fatimid Empire
- Trace decent from Muhammed’s daughter Fatimid
- Starts in the 8th and 9th century
Panel with horse head, Fatimid Period, 1000 CE
Azhar Mosque, Fatimid Empire Architect, 970
- Hypostyle mosque
Al-Azhar Mosque (Architectural plan), Fatimid Empire Architect, 970
Larabanga Mosque, Sudano-Sahelian Architect, 1421
- Islamic West Africa
- Made of mud- becomes very hard with dung or slip
- Takes Islamic architecture and West African architecture and combines them
- Small community mosque
- Wood beams inserted through the mosque
Great Mosque at Djenne, Sudano-Sahelian Architect, 1300 CE
- Symbol of Islam emergence in this region
Pair of Sandals, Swahili carver, 1800s
Kigango (pl. Vigango), Mijikenda sculptore, 19th-20th century
- Funerary sculpture to mark graves in forests
- Forests are seen as sacred land
- Usually men are represented on the sculpture
- Typically made for people with wealth
- defined by triangular patterns
Staff Finial of Flywhisk Handle, Igbo Ukwu sculptor, 9th-10th century
- to swat flies who carry deadly diseases
- Horse was imported showing signs of wealth
- Bronze makes it expensive to make
Drinking container featuring stylized Leopard, Igbo-Ukwu sculptor, 9th-10th century
Opa Oranmiyan, Ile-Ife artist, Archaic Period (Pre-800 CE)
Idena (“Gatekeeper”), Ile-Ife artist, Pre-Pavement Period (800-1000 CE)
- Stable base
- Hair made from iron nails embedded in the sculpture itself
- Beaded bracelet- weath
Head of a Queen, Ile-Ife artist, 12th-13th century (Pavement Period)
- Part of a larger body (location unknown)
- When the queen dies her kinship lives in the sculpture
- Down-cast eyes
- Showing less emotion
Cylindrical Head, Ile-Ife scuptor, 13th-14th century (Pavement Period)
- Ore Inu- Inner head “abstracted head”-inner self is more important than outer self
- Ore Ode- Outer head- inward focus
Head, Yoruba, Ile-Ife caster, 13th-15th century (Pavement Period)
- Outward gaze
- Lacking a headdress
- Holes circling the head, used for performance and parade, coronation rituals
- Buried underground
- Scarred marks were a stylistic choice and not sign of royal (scars are dug out instead of raised) -scars made the mask more legible because it gives a less glare; more visually appealing; lines elongate the face (the face was extremely important to the Ile-Ife)
Mask of Obalufon II, Ile-Ife caster, 13th-14th century (Pavement Period)
- Holes in head implying extra decoration
Church of Biete Ghiorgis, Christian Ethiopia, 1180-1230 CE
- Church carved into the rock
- Leave the current state of consciousness that lives above ground and transcend underground in a new state of mind
Church of Biete Emanuel, Christian Ethiopia, 1180-1230
- Looks like Aksumite architecture
- Linking the church to the Aksumites
Left: Processional Cross, Christian Ethiopia, 12th-13th Century,
Right: Processional Cross, Christian Ethiopia, 12th-13th Century
- belongs to the church and used in ceremonies
- Casted to make
Personal Hand Crosses, Christian Ethiopia, 13th-15th Century, Cast Metal, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
- Hand made with hammer
- Personal cross
Panel featuring Our Lady Mary with Her Beloved Son and Archangels Michael and Gabriel, Fre Seyon, 1445-1480
- Icon- the Mary that we see here is actually her
- Fresyon is the artist- makes large almond overshapped eyes
Diptych with Mary and Her Son Flanked by Archangels, Apostles, and Saints, Painter following Fre Seyon, Late 15th Century,
Healing Scroll, Christian Ethiopia, 19th Century,
Equestrian Figure, Malian Empire, 13th-15th Century,
- displaying military power with imported horse
Seated Figure, Malian Empire, 13th century,
