The cultures of the African continent was historically, erroneously and conventionally believed to be the product of a more or less timeless and primitive innocence, possessing value chiefly as tributes to spontaneous emotion or as objects of art that were essentially artless. What is clear is that their scenery and methods have been greatly different than traditional North Americans, but not the general course and destination. The old fixations go justly to pieces; the heavy weight of ancient and accustomed prejudice to the scrapheap of history; the entire baggage that encompassed the paternalistic view of Africans as feckless children or worse, retarded, was largely minted by the early explorers and cast further back in Elizabethan times. Africans have solved or tried to solve their material and moral problems with the same conscious and thoughtful maturity as other continents.
---The middle portion of the painting shows a Nubian noblewoman with a large floral headdress riding in an ox cart. Before her walk men carrying rings and bags of gold, brought as tribute to the Egyptian court. At the far left is a procession of manacled slaves followed by two grieving women with children. Some Nubians in the painting are wearing Egyptian wigs and robes while others are dressed in more typical Nubian clothing. The artist illustrates that the Nubian population was made up of a wide range of economic groups. This painting illustrates the key role that trade played, in the relationship between the two regions. A kneeling prince (at right image) leading the tribute bearers is identified as Hekanefer, Prince of Miam (modern Aniba), a region of northern Nubia. Hekanefer’s dress is Nubian. Details like the ostrich feather and panther skin he wears, along with other exotic products, serve to indicate that Nubia is the geographic source of these items. ---Read More:http://wysinger.homestead.com/tombofhuy.html
Together with Ife, the center of African artistic creativity was the kingdom of Benin, sometimes called “bloody Benin” after the persistence of its brutal sacrificial customs and the massacre of a British expedition that took place there in 1897. Benin bronzes, world famous for their authority and skill, such as the leopard below, a symbol of the power of Benin’s king, or Oba, who often kept tame leopards in the palace.
---Date: 1550–1680 Geography: Nigeria, Court of Benin Culture: Edo peoples Medium: Bronze Dimensions: H. 15 1/2 x W. 5 x D. 15 11/16 in. (39.4 x 12.7 x 39.9 cm) Classification: Metal-Sculpture Credit Line: The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1972---Read More:http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/50003344?rpp=20&pg=4&ft=Court+of+Benin&pos=74
Among the Oba’s possessions, when a punitive British expedition came to chastise him, was the ivory mask above, bearing European heads around its crown, and slits in the forehead, eyelids, and eyes to receive inlaid metal. It is considered one of the finest works of art from Benin, or elsewhere.
---The Benin Empire, one of the Yoruba kingdoms, was at its height between 1300 and 1700. A highly organized society, there was a strict social heirarchy. The predominant origin story of the Benin people said that the Edo village chiefs of Benin sent a messenger to Ile-Ife asking its divine ruler to send a leader to restore order. The Ife king sent his son. The son did not stay but left behind a child who in time became ruler of Benin, Oba Eweka I (around 1200). ---Read More:http://www.historywiz.com/benin.html
COMMENTS
