Download or read book African Royal Court Art written by Michèle Coquet and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1998-12-01 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this visually stunning work, anthropologist Michèle Coquet presents the power and the brilliance of African court arts. Grounding her analysis in the social and historical context of traditional royalty systems, Coquet examines the diverse roles played by artisans, nobles, and kings in the production and use of royal objects. From the precolonial kingdoms of the Edo and the Yoruba, the Ashanti and the Igbo, Coquet reconstructs from a comparativist view the essential cultural connections between art, representation, and the king. More than ornamentation, royal objects embodied the strength and status of African rulers. The gold-plated stools of the Ashanti, the delicately carved ivory bracelets of the Edo-these objects were meant not simply to adorn but to affirm and enhance the power and prestige of the wearer. Unlike the abstract style frequently seen in African ritual art, realism became manifest in courtly arts. Realism directly linked the symbolic value of the object-a portrait or relief-with the physical person of the king. The contours of the monarch's face, his political and military exploits rendered on palace walls, became visual histories, the work of art in essence corroborating the ruler's sovereign might. Richly illustrated and wonderfully detailed, Coquet's influential volume offers both a splendid visual presentation and an authoritative analysis of African royal arts. "[This] beautiful and exciting book emphasizes the skillful court art of the Benin, Dahomey, and the Kongo. A very interesting and unusual approach to the art of the continent that has been too easily situated 'outside of history.'"—Le Figaro
Download or read book Benin written by Kathleen Bickford Berzock and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 15th century, the Kingdom of Benin (located in present-day southwestern Nigeria) established a mercantile relationship with Portugal, significantly increasing its wealth and might. Benin became a regional powerhouse and, under a long lineage of divine rulers, or obas, it wielded great economic and political influence. The obas also supported guilds of artists--chief among them brass casters and ivory carvers--whom they employed to produce objects that honored royal ancestors, recorded history, and glorified life at court. The sophisticated creations of Benin’s royal artists stand among the greatest works of African art. This stunning book features a selection of Benin’s extraordinary artworks that range from finely cast bronze figures, altar heads, and wall plaques to ivory tusks, pendants, and arm cuffs embellished in detailed bas relief. An insightful essay outlines the kingdom’s history and sheds light on these masterworks by describing their production and function in the context of the royal court.
Download or read book Royal Art of Benin written by Kate Ezra and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 1992 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tantalizing trivia. this Hitler, spoiling everything?"
Download or read book Benin written by Armand Duchâteau and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ancient kingdom of Benin lies in the tropical rain forest of West Africa, in present-day Nigeria. During its classical age, from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, it produced one of the continent's most glorious artistic legacies. To reflect the splendor of the royal court, the Oba (king) commissioned highly skilled artisans to create rare and beautiful works of cast brass and carved ivory. These included human and animal figures, relief plaques, elephant tusks, pendants, bracelets, life-size commemorative heads of Obas and queen mothers, and ceremonial objects to adorn the royal palace and the altars honoring Obas of the past. The exquisite brass heads were intended to function as objects celebrating ancestors, as war trophies, and as focal points for sacrificial ceremonies." "This volume presents a superb selection of artifacts from the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Vienna, home to one of the world's foremost collections of Benin art. Most of these artifacts were acquired at the end of the last century, when the influx of Benin objects into Europe after the destruction of Benin City caused a sensation among art experts and caught the interest of museum representatives and private collectors. Of the more than one hundred works reproduced here in full color, the majority have never been seen as a group in the U.S. Most celebrated are the cast brass sculptures - including the two figures of dwarfs - which have no parallel in sub-Saharan Africa." "A history of the kingdom of Benin up to the British punitive expedition of 1897 provides insight into the politics and culture of one of Africa's greatest civilizations. Further chapters discuss the court hierarchy, the art of brasscasting, the art of Benin and its symbolism, and the history of the Benin Collection in Vienna. To interpret the rich symbolism in Benin art, the book furnishes detailed analyses of the works that are reproduced. In his description of myths and ritual observances, the author presents a fascinating cosmology, in which animals were assigned magical and medicinal powers, and the Oba was seen as an intermediary between the earth and the world of spirits."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Download or read book The Royal Arts of Africa written by Suzanne P. Blier and published by Prentice Hall. This book was released on 1998-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For use in an undergraduate or graduate course in African Art; also suitable as a supplementary reading for art history surveys. Lavishly illustrated, this historically grounded text draws together key traditions from West, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa to present an informative and captivating survey of the most important royal arts in the great sub-Saharan African kingdoms. Exploring the diverse ways that African rulers employed art and architecture to define individual and state identity, it provides an overview of the major themes in royal African art and discusses what these arts reveal about the nature of kingship.
Download or read book Benin Kings and Rituals written by Barbara Plankensteiner and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edited by Barbara Plakensteiner. Foreword by O.J. Eboreime.
Download or read book Bamum written by Christraud Geary and published by 5Continents. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, artists working for the royal court of Bamum, in Cameroon, created elaborate bead-covered thrones and stools, wooden sculptures, masks in human and animal form, architectural carvings, and fine objects in bronze, ivory, and clay. This book focuses on the history, iconography, and meaning of these royal arts and looks at Western collectors who were fascinated by King Ibrahim Njoya (ruled 1886/7 to 1931) and the splendor of the royal court. Visual and written sources--including testimony by King Njoya and his courtiers, and extensive archival records--cast light on the strategies of a monarch who allowed visitors to acquire these arts to enhance the kingdom's reputation in distant Europe. The history of Bamum arts thus offers unique perspectives on African creativity and ingenuity, and European ways of collecting.
Download or read book Fragile Legacies written by Amy J. Staples and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fragile Legacies showcases the extraordinary photographs of Chief Solomon Osagie Alonge (1911-1994), one of Nigeria's premier photographers and the first official photographer to the royal court of the Benin kingdom. Alonge's photographs document a half-century of the Benin palace and the rituals, pageantry, and regalia of the obas (kings), and provide rare insight into the early histories and practices of studio photography in West Africa. His insider status provides an important perspective for examining the transformations of Benin City during the early to mid-twentieth century. --Front flap.
Download or read book Benin written by Barbara Plankensteiner and published by 5Continents. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the history, iconography, and function of pre-colonial Benin art, including color images of bronzes, ivories, and wood carvings
Download or read book Loot written by Barnaby Phillips and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Prospect Best Book of 2021 ‘A fascinating and timely book.’ William Boyd ‘Gripping…a must read.’ FT ‘Compelling…humane, reasonable, and ultimately optimistic.’ Evening Standard ‘[A] valuable guide to a complex narrative.’ The Times In 1897, Britain sent a punitive expedition to the Kingdom of Benin, in what is today Nigeria, in retaliation for the killing of seven British officials and traders. British soldiers and sailors captured Benin, exiled its king and annexed the territory. They also made off with some of Africa’s greatest works of art. The ‘Benin Bronzes’ are now amongst the most admired and valuable artworks in the world. But seeing them in the British Museum today is, in the words of one Benin City artist, like ‘visiting relatives behind bars’. In a time of huge controversy about the legacy of empire, racial justice and the future of museums, what does the future hold for the Bronzes?
Download or read book The Lower Niger Bronzes written by Philip M. Peek and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2020-07-27 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates that copper-alloy casting was widespread in southern Nigeria and has been practiced for at least a millennium. Philip M. Peek’s research provides a critical context for the better-known casting traditions of Igbo-Ukwu, Ife, and Benin. Both the necessary ores and casting skills were widely available, contrary to previous scholarly assumptions. The majority of the Lower Niger Bronzes, which we know number in the thousands, are of subjects not found elsewhere, such as leopard skull replicas, grotesque bell heads, ritual objects, and humanoid figures. Important puzzle pieces are now in place to permit a more complete reconstruction of southern Nigerian history. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, African studies, African history, and anthropology.
Download or read book The Art of Africa written by Christa Clarke and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2006 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A CD-ROM and DVD set extracted from the 'The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators.' The CD-ROM "contains a PDF of 'The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators, ' which features forty traditional works of African art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It includes a brief overview of the Metropolitan's collection of African art; a short introduction and history of Africa; an explanation of the role of visual expression in the continent; descriptions of the featured works of art and background about the materials and techniques that were used to created them ... The DVD, 'Ci Wara Invocation, ' "presents the highlights of a dozen ci wara performances in Bamana communities in present-day Mali that were recorded by five different observers between 1970-2002. Among the Bamana, oral traditions credit a mythical being named Ci Wara, a divine being half mortal and half antelope, with the introduction of agriculture to the Bamana. The ci wara performances are part of biannual celebrations that either launch or conclude the farming season."--Container
Download or read book Caravans of Gold Fragments in Time written by Kathleen Bickford Berzock and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Issued in conjunction with the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time, held January 26, 2019-July 21, 2019, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Download or read book Servants of the Dynasty written by Anne Walthall and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008-06-10 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mothers, wives, concubines, entertainers, attendants, officials, maids, drudges. By offering the first comparative view of the women who lived, worked, and served in royal courts around the globe, this work opens a new perspective on the monarchies that have dominated much of human history. Written by leading historians, anthropologists, and archeologists, these lively essays take us from Mayan states to twentieth-century Benin in Nigeria, to the palace of Japanese Shoguns, the Chinese Imperial courts, eighteenth-century Versailles, Mughal India, and beyond. Together they investigate how women's roles differed, how their roles changed over time, and how their histories can illuminate the structures of power and societies in which they lived. This work also furthers our understanding of how royal courts, created to project the authority of male rulers, maintained themselves through the reproductive and productive powers of women.
Download or read book The Dark Tree written by Steven L. Isoardi and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2023-08-07 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 1960s, pianist Horace Tapscott gave up a successful career in Lionel Hampton’s band and returned to his home in Los Angeles to found the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, a community arts group that focused on providing community-oriented jazz and jazz training. Over the course of almost forty years, the Arkestra, together with the related Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension collective, was at the forefront of the vital community-based arts movement in Black Los Angeles. Some three hundred artists—musicians, vocalists, poets, playwrights, painters, sculptors, and graphic artists—passed through these organizations, many ultimately remaining within the community and others moving on to achieve international fame. In The Dark Tree, Steven L. Isoardi draws on one hundred in-depth interviews with the Arkestra’s participants to tell the history of the important and largely overlooked community arts movement of Black Los Angeles. This revised and updated edition brings the story of the Arkestra up to date, as its ethos and aesthetic remain vital forces in jazz and popular music to this day.
Download or read book Art of the Royal Court written by Wolfram Koeppe and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2008 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the royal and princely courts of Europe, artworks made of multicolored semiprecious stones were passionately coveted objects. Known as pietre dure, or hardstones, this type of artistic expression includes?paintings in stone,? which were composed of intricately cut separate pieces that were made into magnificent tabetops, cabinets, and wall decorations. Other works included vessels and ornaments carved with virtuosic skill from a single piece of rare and brilliant lapis lazuli, chalcedony, jasper, or similarly prized substance; exquisite objects such as boxes, clocks, and jewelry; and portraits of nobles sculpted in variously colored stones. Derived from ancient Roman decorative stonework, the art of pietre dure was developed in Renaissance Florence, where the manufacture of such objects was enthusiastically sponsored by Medici princes. Ideally suited for ostentatious display, the works sent an unmistakable message of wealth and political might that was understood in centers of power everywhere. From Italy the medium spread across Europeto Prague, Madrid, Naples, Paris, and later Saint Petersburg. Precious and fragile, pietre dure objects are rarely brought together in large numbers. This richly illustrated catalogue contains more than 150 masterworks from across Europe, dating from five centuries, including almost every artistic use of semiprecious stone during this time as well as some of the finest examples of the medium. Eight essays by European and American experts discuss the individualized development of pietre dure in every European region, the latest developments in scholarship, the interrelationships between art and dynastic politics and between cultures, and a variety of techniques used to produce these luxurious masterworks."--Metropolitan Museum of Art website.
Download or read book The Brutish Museums written by Dan Hicks and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walk into any European museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objectsare all stolen. Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of brass plaques and carved ivory tusks depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of BeninCity, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections. The story of the Benin Bronzes sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. In The Brutish Museums, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism.
