Lecture | African Art and European Contact

African Art and European Contact Reading: H. Gene
Blocker, “Is Primi=ve Art Art?” pp. 87-‐97. Range: 500 BCE-‐1500 CE Nok, Ife, Benin, Sapi Terms/Concepts: lost-‐wax cas=ng, primi=ve, primi=vism, othering, savannah, living rock, cruciform, toron, Oba, ama, manilla, Olokun, saltcellar Monument List:   TerracoQa Head, Nok Culture, Lagos, Nigeria, c. 500 BCE-‐200 BCE.   Crowned Head of a King (Oni), Ife, Yoruba, 12th-‐15th Century CE   Hip Mask Represen=ng an Iyoba (“Queen Mother”), Benin, Middle Period, c. 1550 CE   Master of the Symbolic Execu=on, saltcellar, Sapi-‐ Portuguese, from Sierra Leone, ca. 1490-‐1540.

Erg Chebbi Sand Dunes, Sahara Desert, Morocco. Makgadikgadi
Pans, Dry Savannah, Botswana. Congo Basin, Tropical Forest, Republic of Congo

c. 5000 BCE Today

Nok Culture: 500 BCE – 200 CE

View across the leb bank of the river Kaduna,
near Kagara, central Nigeria.

Jos Plateau during the rainy season, near Nok, Nigeria.

TerracoQa Head, Nok Culture, Lagos, Nigeria, c. 500
BCE-‐200 BCE.

Women using open clamp oven, village of Oka outside
of Ibadan, Nigeria, 1991. Air-‐dried pots are placed in a pit over a ﬁre.

Pit kiln or open clamp oven, Central Nigeria, 2006.
The kiln reaches over 1300° F to harden the clay.

TerracoQa Head, Nok Culture, Lagos, Nigeria, c. 500 BCE-‐200
BCE.

TerracoQa Heads, Nok Culture, Lagos, Nigeria, c. 500 BCE-‐200
BCE.

Seated Dignitary, Nok Culture, Africa, Nok Plateau, Nigeria, c.
250 B.C.

Forests and Rivers, Osun Grove, Near Ife, Southern Nigeria.

Its residents oben referred to Ife as the “Navel
of the World.” Figure of the Oni, Ita Yemoo, Ife, late 13th-‐15th century.

Pavement Era Begins in 1000 CE

Symbol of the Inner Head (ibori), western Yoruba, c.
19th-‐20th century. Cache of Bronze Heads found under the ﬂoor of the Wunmonije Compound, near the palace of the Oni, 1938.

So-‐called “Ori Olokun,” likely a crowned head of a
King (Oni), Ife, Yoruba, early 20th century copy of 14th-‐15th Century original.

Archaeologist and anthropologist Leo Frobenius, c.1910. So-‐called
“Ori Olokun,” likely a crowned head of a King (Oni), Ife, Yoruba, early 20th century copy of 14th-‐15th Century original. “It [Ori Olokun] is en=rely devoid of Negro characteris=cs and there is no doubt that it cannot have been made of local cas=ng…[I] discovered indisputable proofs of the existence of Plato’s legendary Con=nent of Atlan=s”

Crowned Head of a King (Oni), Ife, Yoruba, 12th-‐15th
Century CE “May Obatala fashion for us a good work of art.”

Crowned Head of a King (Oni), Ife, Yoruba, 12th-‐15th
Century CE Yoruba Aesthe=cs: •  Ifarahon (visibility) •  Didon (luminosity) •  Gigun (straight) •  Odo (“in the prime of life”) •  Tut (coolness) •  Didogba (symmetry) •  Ogbogba (balance) •  Ohun Eso (ornamenta=on) •  Jihora (likeness)

TerracoQa Head, Ife, Yoruba, 12th-‐15th Century CE
Embodiment in Portraiture •  Ashe: Life Force •  Iwa: Crea=vity •  Ara: Evoca=ve Power

TerracoQa Head, Ife, Yoruba, 12th-‐15th Century CE
Scariﬁca=on is s=ll prac=ced in western Africa today.

Bronze Mask Head, Ife, Yoruba, 12th-‐15th Century CE
Masquerader wearing beaded veil at a ceremony honoring his ancestors, Ijebu, Nigeria, 1986.

Early Trade Routes

African Slave Trade

Slave Trade Map

Benin: c. 1440-‐1897 Benin City

Benin City Ife sent Benin a new dynas=c king
in 1170.

Memorial Head of an Oba, Benin, Early Period, 16th
Century CE Crowned Head of a King (Oni), Ife, Yoruba, 12th-‐15th Century CE

Walls of Benin City before 1897 raid.

Memorial Head of an Oba, Benin, Early Period,
16th Century CE

Altar dedicated to Oba Ovonramwen, Benin peoples, Benin City,
Nigeria, c. 1914.

Head of King (Oba), Benin, Nigeria, Edo, 17th century.

Oba Akenzua II in beaded regalia, 1958.

High-‐ranking Benin chiefs in the “pangolin” costume, 1997.

Corselet, cap, and ﬂywhisk, Coral and agate beads, 18th-‐19th
century.

High-‐ranking Benin chiefs in the “pangolin” costume, 1997.
Plaque (ama) with the Royal Triad, Benin, 16th-‐17th century.

Procession of the Oba, Benin City, from Descrip8on of Africa,
published in Amsterdam in 1668.

Benin City, from Descrip8on of Africa, published in Amsterdam
in 1668.

Hip Mask Represen=ng an Iyoba (“Queen Mother”), Benin,
Middle Period, c. 1550 CE Woman with facial scariﬁca=on, Benin, 2010

Hip Mask Represen=ng an Iyoba (“Queen Mother”), Benin,
Middle Period, c. 1550 CE

Alterna=ng PaQern of Olokun and Portuguese Merchants, Hip Mask
Represen=ng an Iyoba (“Queen Mother”), Benin, Middle Period, c. 1550 CE Olokun Olokun Merchant

Olokun, Hip Mask Represen=ng an Iyoba (“Queen Mother”), Benin,
Middle Period, c. 1550 CE Bronze Statue of Olokun, Ebo-‐ Olokun, Nigeria, c. 12th-‐15th centuries.

Members of the Bri=sh Puni=ve Raid, Benin Palace, 1897.
Members of the Bri=sh Puni=ve Raid with spoils, Benin Palace, 1897.

Coloniza=on Map “He became a Chris=an and at
school was my fellow scholar in learning to read and write. When he leb he could write very well, because the Sapes have a talent and skill at everything they learn.” (Andre Donelha on Beca Bore, a Sapi royal, in 1570s).

Master of the Symbolic Execu=on, saltcellar, Sapi-‐Portuguese, from Sierra
Leone, ca. 1490-‐1540.

Benvenuto Cellini, Salt Cellar for Francis I, 1540-‐1543.

Pieter Claesz, S8ll Life with Wine, 1643. Detail:
Saltcellar

Leone, ca. 1490-‐1540.

Leone, ca. 1490-‐1540. “This is how they mete out jus=ce…they cut oﬀ the heads and throw the bodies to the wild animals.” (Alvarez de Almada, 17th century).

Leone, ca. 1490-‐1540. Mende (Mande) Stool, Sierra Leone.

The Danish naturalist Ole Worm's cabinet of curiosi=es, This
is the fron=spiece to Worm's 1655 Museum Wormianium.

Lecture | African Art and European Contact

Lecture | African Art and European Contact

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