One of the Oldest Surviving Examples of Subsaharan Art Comes From the Ife Culture

Sculpture of the Nok

2 of the best examples of ancient terracotta sculptures are from the Nok culture in Nigeria and from an ancient culture who lived near modernistic Lydenburg, South Africa.

Learning Objectives

Compare the ancient terra cotta sculptures from the Nok culture in Nigeria to those found most present-solar day Lydenburg, Southward Africa

Key Takeaways

Primal Points

• The Nok culture , existing in Nigeria from around 1500 BCE to 200 CE, was the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized terra cotta sculptures.
• The large Nok sculptures are hollow, with detailed, stylized features. Hitting similarities between terracotta Nok sculptures and after wooden sculptures past Yoruba sculptors have led scholars to speculate whether the two cultures are related.
• While the function of Nok sculptures is largely unknown, theories include use as grave markers, ancestral portrayal, or charms to protect against ingather failure, infertility, or illness.
• The Lydenburg Heads are homo-shaped terra cotta sculptures discovered in Lydenburg, South Africa. Their epitome has since become associated with awards for accomplishment in the arts.

Key Terms

• terra cotta: A hard red-dark-brown unglazed earthenware, used for pottery and building construction.
• finial: Whatever decorative plumbing fixtures at the tiptop of a flagpole, contend post or staircase newel mail service.

The earliest identified Nigerian culture is the Nok culture, which thrived between 1500 BCE and 200 CE on the Jos Plateau in northeastern Nigeria. Information is defective from the start millennium BCE post-obit the Nok ascendancy. All the same, by the second millennium BCE, active trade routes had developed from Ancient Arab republic of egypt via Nubia through the Sahara to the forest. Savanna peoples acted equally intermediaries in exchanges of various goods. Reasons for the Nok'due south sudden disappearance remains unknown.

Nok and Lydenburg Terra Cotta Sculptures

Ancient terra cotta sculptures in the form of man bodies or heads have been institute in several areas of sub-Saharan Africa, providing glimpses into the cultures that existed in the region. Two of the all-time examples are from the Nok culture in nowadays-24-hour interval Nigeria and from an ancient civilisation living near the nowadays-day town of Lydenburg, S Africa.

Nok

Similarities in artwork propose the Nok culture evolved into the later Yoruba culture of Ife. One example is this sculpture of a woman, which bears a hitting resemblance to an early 20th-century sculpture of a rex and queen female parent by the Yoruba artist Olowe of Ise. The Nok civilization was the primeval sub-Saharan producer of life-sized terra cotta sculptures.

Female person figurine: Terra cotta. 48 cm tall. Nok culture. c. 515-1215 CE.

The first scattered fragments were discovered on the Jos Plateau during a tin mining expedition in 1928. The terra cotta figures are hollow, and while some include establish and animal motifs , the most well-known are of human heads and bodies that frequently attain life-sized proportions. These human sculptures contain very detailed and stylized features, arable jewelry, and varied postures. Some even illustrate physical ailments, disease, or facial paralysis. While their function is largely unknown, theories include utilise as ancestor portrayal, grave markers, finials for roofs of buildings, or charms to protect against crop failure, infertility, or affliction.

Nok Sculpture: Nok sculptures may have been used as grave markers, charms, or portrayals of ancestors. Terra cotta. Sixth century BCE-sixth century CE. Nigeria.

Researchers suggest that Nok ceramics were likely shaped by paw from fibroid-grained clay so sculpted with a technique like to forest etching. Later drying, the sculptures were covered with slip and polished to produce a smoothen, glossy surface. The firing process probably resembled that used today in Nigeria, in which the sculptures are covered with grass, twigs, and leaves and burned for several hours.

Lydenburg

Lydenburg, a town in Mpumalanga, South Africa, is also known for the discovery of some of the primeval forms of African sculpture. The Lydenburg Heads (400-500 CE) are terra cotta sculptures like to those of the Nok. Found in the expanse in the tardily 1950s, their function is all the same unknown, although they likely served a ritualistic purposes as masks, ornament, or role of ceremonial regalia.

Lyndenburg Head: The Lydenburg Heads are the primeval known examples of African sculpture in Southern Africa. Ii of the heads are large enough to take been ceremonial helmet masks. The five smaller heads accept a pigsty on either side of the neck, by which they could have been fastened to a pole or costume during a functioning. Ane of the small heads has an beast-like nose and mouth, which would have been of symbolic importance to the makers of the heads.

Since their discovery, these heads accept come up to symbolize African fine art and won multiple awards. The image of the Lydenburg head tin exist seen both on the badge given by the South African Order of Ikhamanga representing achievement in the arts and in the Golden Horn trophy of the South African Film and Television Awards, which signifies excellence in visual creative arts, functioning, and drama.

The Order of Ikhamanga: An image of the Order of Ikhamanga, where the Lydenburg caput tin be seen in the center.

Sculpture of the Igbo-Ukwu

The Nigerian town of Igbo-Ukwu is notable for archaeological sites where highly sophisticated statuary artifacts were discovered.

Learning Objectives

Describe the discovery, production, and role of Igbo bronze art, masquerades, sculptures, and mbari

Key Takeaways

Primal Points

• Excavations in Igbo-Ukwu have constitute highly sophisticated statuary artifacts from the earliest known age of bronze casting , dating to the ninth or tenth century CE.
• The three sites were discovered from 1938-1959 and include Igbo Isaiah (a shrine), Igbo Richard (a burial chamber), and Igbo Jonah (a cache ).
• These artifacts are likely from the burial of a highly of import person. They include ritual vessels , pendants, crowns and breastplates, jewelry, ceramics , copper and iron objects, and thousands of drinking glass beads.
• The bronze castings, made in stages using the lost wax technique, illustrate the artisans' high level of skill.
• In addition to the artifacts at Igbo-Ukwu, the Igbo people are known for hammered jewelry, masks, Mbari houses, and mud sculptures.

Key Terms

• cache: A store of things that may be required in the future such as food, which tin can exist retrieved rapidly but is protected or subconscious in some manner.

Igbo-Ukwu, a town of the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria, is notable for three archaeological sites where excavations have found statuary artifacts from a sophisticated metallic-working culture dating to the 9th or tenth century. This is the earliest known instance of a bronze-casting social club in the region by hundreds of years.

The first of the sites, Igbo Isaiah, is a shrine uncovered in 1938 by Isaiah Anozie, a local villager who stumbled upon the bronze works while digging beside his home. Subsequent excavations by Thurston Shaw in 1959 resulted in the discovery of two other sites: Igbo Richard, a burial chamber, and Igbo Jonah, thought to be a cache.

Some metal objects were hammered into their electric current forms , including many pieces of jewelry. A woman's anklet at present housed in the British Museum consists of a central leg tube that extends over an inch across the center (approximately 2.75 inches in diameter). Its disk is incised with intricate abstract designs.

Igbo brass anklet: Anklet beaten from a solid brass bar.

Igbo Bronze Art

Most bronze sculptures were made in stages using the lost wax technique, an ancient casting procedure normally using wax. Many of the castings integrated small-scale decorative items and designs, showing the artisans' high level of skill. Some of the bronzes were likely part of the furniture in the burial chamber of a king or other noble. In add-on to a diverseness of ritual vessels, bronze items include pendants, crowns and breastplates, staff ornaments , swords, and fly-whisk handles .

Human and ram's head pendants: The elaborate designs and casting in bronzes such equally this ane betoken to the Igbo people'due south high level of skill.

Igbo Ukwu bronze: A ceremonial vessel made around the ninth century CE.

Other artifacts discovered in the sites include jewelry, ceramics, a corpse adorned in what appears to be regalia, and many assorted copper and atomic number 26 objects. Tens of thousands of drinking glass chaplet were also discovered, suggesting a long-altitude trading arrangement with places equally far away equally Arab republic of egypt, Venice , or Republic of india.

Other Examples of Igbo Art

Prior to British colonialism , the Igbo were a fragmented and various group, a quality reflected in its artistic styles . Besides the bronze artifacts discovered in the twentieth century, Igbo art is by and large known for various types of masquerade masks and outfits symbolizing people, animals, or abstract images. The New Yam Festival is an annual cultural festival held at the cease of the rainy season in early August to symbolize the conclusion of a harvest and the starting time of the side by side work wheel. The celebration ties individual Igbo communities together every bit essentially agrestal and dependent on yam.

New Yam Festival: On the correct, a participant wears an elaborate mask and headdress with attire made of raffia. The festival in this photo  was organized by Igbo residents of Dublin, Republic of ireland.

Igbo art is also famous for Mbari houses, large open up-sided foursquare planned shelters containing life-sized mud sculptures. These painted figures–sculpted in the class of deities , animals, legendary creatures, ancestors, officials, craftsmen, and foreigners–are fabricated to gratify the earth goddess. The procedure of edifice Mbari houses often takes years and is regarded equally sacred. Therefore, new ones are regularly constructed, while old ones are left to decay.

Construction of a Mbari house: Detail of the upper level and roof.

A unique construction of Igbo culture is the Nsude Pyramids , a grouping of 10 pyramidal clay and mud structures built as temples for the goddess Ala/Uto, believed to reside at the elevation. Everyday houses were made of mud and thatched roofs and had blank earth floors with carved doors. Some houses had elaborate designs both in the interior and exterior, including Uli art designed by Igbo women.

Ile-Ife and Republic of benin Sculpture

The Yoruba and Benin cultures produced bronze and ivory sculptures in mod Nigeria from the 13th through the 19th centuries.

Learning Objectives

Describe the characteristics of Ile-Ife and Benin sculpture

Primal Takeaways

Key Points

• Ife is home to the Yoruba people in southwestern Nigeria. The city was established almost the ninth century CE, and reached its artistic meridian betwixt 1200 and 1400 CE.
• Ife is most well-known for its bronze sculptures, typically in a naturalistic style . Stone and terra cotta artwork was also common, and leaders were often depicted with large heads to indicate their ability.
• The Benin Empire, which ruled Nigeria from the 11th to the tardily 19th century, produced sculptures in a wide multifariousness of media for political, social, and religious purposes.
• In the 15th century, contact with Portuguese traders and colonists resulted in the incorporation of European styles into Benin art.

Cardinal Terms

• terracotta: A hard red-brownish unglazed earthenware used for pottery and edifice construction.
• deities: Divine beings; gods or goddesses.

Yoruba

Ife is the home to the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria, located in the present-day Osun State. The Yoruba people comprise one of the largest ethnic groups in Sub-Saharan Africa, constituting close to 40 1000000 people predominantly in Nigeria. Bear witness of habitation at the site dates to equally early as 600 BCE. Some evidence suggests the Yoruba developed from the Nok culture (chiliad BCE–500 CE).

The pregnant of the word "ife" in Yoruba is "expansion." Co-ordinate to Yoruba faith, the metropolis of Ife is where all of humanity originated: Oduduwa created the earth where Ife would be built, and his brother Obatala created the first humans out of clay. The city was a settlement of substantial size betwixt the ninth and 12th centuries CE. Production of Yoruba artwork reached its peak betwixt 1200 and 1400 CE, after which it declined every bit political and economical power shifted to the nearby kingdom of Republic of benin.

Artwork of Ife

Ife is best known for its naturalistic bronze sculptures. Hollow-cast bronze art created by the Yoruba culture provides an example of realism in precolonial African art. Important people were often depicted with large heads, as the Yoruba believed that the Ase, or inner ability and energy of a person, resided in the head. Their rulers were often depicted with their mouths covered so that the power of their speech would not exist too great .

Ife Bronze Sculpture: Sculpture of a male monarch's caput, held in the British Museum.

Stone and terra cotta artwork were also common in Ife. More elaborate festivals organized to worship deities were also common. These would often extend over several days and involve theatrical dramatizations in the palace and kingdom.

In his volume "The Oral Traditions in Ile-Ife," Yemi D. Prince referred to the terra cotta artists of 900 CE every bit the founders of art guilds , cultural schools of philosophy like to Europe's erstwhile institutions of learning. These guilds may be some of the oldest non-Abrahamic African centers of learning still in existence.

Benin

The Benin Empire was a precolonial African kingdom that ruled Nigeria from the eleventh century to 1897. Not to exist dislocated with the present-day land of Benin, this empire dissolved into what is today the Edo State of Nigeria, marked by the capital letter , Benin City. At its elevation, the empire adult an advanced artistic civilisation and produced cute artifacts of bronze, iron and ivory .

Art of Benin

The Republic of benin Empire was known for its many works of fine art, including religious objects, formalism weapons, masks, animal heads, figurines , busts, and plaques. Typically fabricated from bronze, brass, clay, ivory, terra cotta, or woods, most pieces were produced at the court of the Oba (king) and used to illustrate achievements of the empire or narrate mythical stories. Iconic imagery depicted religious, social, and cultural issues central to their beliefs, and many bronze plaques featured representations of the Oba.

Diverse works promoted theological and religious piety, while others narrated past events and achievements (actual or mythical). During the reign of the Kingdom of Republic of benin, the characteristics of the artwork shifted from thin castings and conscientious treatment to thick, less divers castings and generalized features.

Sculpture of the Benin Kingdom: This sculpture, one of the many examples of Benin Bronzes held in museums around the world, depicts the generalized figures that frequently appear in Benin art. 16th-18th century. Nigeria.

One of the about common artifacts today is the ivory mask based on Queen Idia, the female parent of Oba Esigie who ruled from 1504-1550. At present ordinarily known as the Festac mask, information technology was used in 1977 as the logo of the Nigeria-hosted Second Festival of Blackness & African Arts and Culture.

Pendant ivory mask of Queen Idia: Iyoba ne Esigie (significant: Queen mother of Oba Esigie), court of Benin, 16th century.

Another object unique to Republic of benin art is the Ikegobo ("altars to the hand"), a cylindrical votive object. Used every bit a cultural marker of an individual's accomplishments, Ikegobo were dedicated to the paw, from which the Beninese considered all will for wealth and success to originate. These commemorative objects were made of contumely, forest, terracotta, or clay depending on the patron 's hierarchical ranking.

Portuguese Influence

The summit of the Republic of benin art occurred in the fifteenth century with the arrival of the Portuguese missionaries and traders. Past that bespeak, Benin was already highly militarized and economically developed. Withal, the inflow of the Portuguese catalyzed a process of fifty-fifty greater political and artistic development.

Considering of Benin's military strength, Portuguese missionaries were unable to enslave its people upon their inflow in the fifteenth century. Instead, a trade network was established in which the Benin Empire traded beautiful works of fine art for luxury items from Portugal, such as beads, textile, and brass manillas for casting. The wealth of Benin'south fine art was credited with preventing the empire from becoming economically dependent on the Portuguese.

Every bit trade flourished, Benin fine art began to depict European influence through technique, imagery, and themes. Bronze work reached its meridian during this era, and today the Benin Bronzes are regarded every bit some of the finest works of that time. These depict a variety of scenes including animals, court life, Portuguese sailors, and relationships between the Republic of benin Empire and the Portuguese. They were cast in matching pairs (although each was individually made), and may accept originally been nailed to walls and pillars in the palace as ornamentation.

Benin plaque: The background portrays the floral pattern characteristic of plaques made at this time and reflective of Portuguese influence. The paradigm in the plaque consists of an Oba (male monarch) surrounded by his subjects. Apart from armed forces and political forcefulness, the plaque illustrates the relationship between the Portuguese and the Benin traders. 16th century.

In 1897, the British led the Punitive Expedition in which they ransacked the Benin kingdom and destroyed or confiscated much of their artwork. Over 3,000 brass plaques were seized and are now held in museums around the world.

In 1936, Oba Akenzua 2 began a movement to render the art to its identify of origin. Nigeria bought approximately 50 bronzes from the British Museum betwixt the 1950s and 1970s and has repeatedly called for the return of the rest.

Sculpture of the Kingdom of Kongo

The Kingdom of Kongo was a highly developed state in the 13th century, best known for its nkisi (power objects).

Learning Objectives

Discuss the office of Kongolese nkisi and nkondi

Key Takeaways

Primal Points

• The Kingdom of Kongo was outset established in the 13th century and was a highly adult state past the time of European contact.
• Kongo had an all-encompassing trading network that included ivory , copperware, ferrous metal appurtenances, cloth, and pottery.
• Nkisi are containers such as ceramic vessels , gourds, animal horns, or shells designed to hold spiritually-charged substances. They were believed to assist in communication with the dead.
• Nkisi made in the shape of humans or animals were often used in divination practices for healing or skillful fortune.
• Nkondi, whose etymological root comes from the word pregnant "to hunt," are believed to protect the user from forces of evil.

Key Terms

• ferrous: Iron-based.
• anthropomorphic: Having the form or attributes of a human being.
• zoomorphic: Having the shape, form, or likeness of an animate being.

The Kingdom of the Kongo was an African kingdom located in west primal Africa in what is now northern Angola, Cabinda, the western portion of the Democratic Congo-brazzaville, and the southernmost part of Gabon. At its greatest extent, it reached from the Atlantic Body of water in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south.

Map of Precolonial Africa: The Kingdom of Kongo is circled in carmine.

The first king of the Kingdom was Lukeni lua Nimi (circa 1280-1320). By the time of the commencement recorded contact with the Europeans, the kingdom was a highly developed state at the center of an extensive trading network. Apart from natural resources and ivory, the land manufactured and traded copperware, ferrous metal appurtenances, raffia fabric, and pottery. The eastern regions were peculiarly famous for material product.

An example of Kongo pottery: Made of ceramic and vegetable dye, such pottery was widely manufactured in the Kingdom of Kongo.

Artistically, the Kingdom of Kongo is perchance best known for its nkisi (singular: minkisi), objects believed to be inhabited past spirits. Early travelers often called nkisi "fetishes" or "idols," every bit some were made in human form . Modern anthropology has by and large chosen them either "power objects" or "charms." Equally in many African cultures , the Kongo religion placed cracking importance on advice with ancestors, believing that exceptional man powers could result from this communication. Nkisi were containers such equally ceramic vessels, gourds, animal horns, or shells, designed to hold spiritually charged substances. Sometimes considered "portable graves," elements similar earth or relics from the grave of a powerful individual were oft placed in the bellies of nkisi. The powers of the expressionless thus infused the object, placing it under command of the ngaga (healer, diviner, or mediator).

Nkisi were often used in divination practices, for healing, or for expert fortune in hunting, trade, or sexual activity. Nearly famously, nkisi have the grade of anthropomorphic or zoomorphic wooden carvings. Birds of casualty, dogs (closely tied to the spiritual world in Kongo theology), lightning, weapons, and burn down are all common themes. The substances chosen for inclusion in nkisi are oft called "bilongo" or "milongo" (singular nlongo) a word often translated as "medicine." However, their operation was not primarily pharmaceutical, as they were not applied to or ingested by the infirm. Rather, they were frequently chosen for metaphoric reasons, such equally correcting illicit behavior.

Minkisi: The light area on the effigy's belly is a glass "window" that would agree "medicine" used for correcting illicit or immoral behavior.

Nkondi – often referred to every bit "nail fetishes" – are an ambitious type of nkisi that were thought to be activated past having nails driven into them. Each nail or metallic piece represented a vow, a signed treaty, and efforts to abolish evil. Although nkisi nkondi take probably been made since at to the lowest degree the 16th century, the nailed figures were nigh likely fabricated in the northern part of the Kongo in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Female power figure of the Vili people – Democratic Republic of Congo: While this figure was fabricated past the Vili people, it is similar to the nkisi nkondi made by people in the Kongo Kingdom.

The proper name nkondi derives from the verb -konda, meaning "to hunt" and thus nkondi means "hunter" because they can hunt downwards and set on evildoers or enemies. The object's primary function is to house a spirit that can hunt downward the source or sources of evil that threaten an private or an entire village. While some nkondi figures appear relatively benign, like the case above, others assume more ambitious body language and facial expressions to demonstrate their ability to set on evildoers successfully.

Minkisi nkondi: This figure assumes a more aggressive facial expression and body language.

Some nkondi presume zoomorphic forms, such as this sculpture of a protective wild brute.

Item of a zoomorphic nkondi: Wood, metal, and porcelain. Eighteenth-nineteenth century.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/sculpture-of-the-sub-saharan-civilizations/

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