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Direct images of African deities are relatively infrequent, but masks in particular are or were often made for traditional African religious ceremonies; today many are made for tourists as "airport art". [2] African masks were an influence on European Modernist art, which was inspired by their lack of concern for naturalistic depiction.
Nomoli figurines are among the earliest works of art from Sierra Leone. [3] The figurines and similar stone sculptures are the only known remains of an empire that existed hundreds of years ago in what is now Sierra Leone and Liberia. Portuguese explorers first recorded the existence of the figurines in the fifteenth century. [1]
Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze, copper, and iron. [4] Finds include bronze sculptures and terracotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewelry, highly decorated pottery, and spears. [5] The largest Sao archaeological finds have occurred south of Lake Chad. [citation needed]
African art includes prehistoric and ancient art, the Islamic art of West Africa, the Christian art of East Africa, and the traditional artifacts of these, and other regions. Many African sculptures were historically made of wood and other natural materials that have not survived from earlier than a few centuries ago, although rare older ...
Teeth were made by inserting clay pegs between the lip gaps. There is a large gap depicted between the two left side teeth. This specimen represents a differing morphology compared to the other six heads. The face of this specimen was created to bulge outwards and down wards with the nose being set low towards the exaggerated lips.
Central Zimbabwe contains the "Great Dyke" – a source of serpentine rocks of many types including a hard variety locally called springstone.An early precolonial culture of Shona peoples settled the high plateau around 900 AD and “Great Zimbabwe”, which dates from about 1250–1450 AD, was a stone-walled town showing evidence in its archaeology of skilled stone working.
In the period around 1300 CE the artists at Ife developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta, stone and copper alloy—copper, brass, and bronze— many of which appear to have been created under the patronage of King Obalufon II, the man who today is identified as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weaving and regalia. [3]
The realism and sophisticated craftsmanship of the objects challenged the dismissive and patronising Western conceptions of African art. The naturalistic features of the Ife heads are unique [3] [1] and the stylistic similarities of these works "suggest that they were made by an individual artist or in a single workshop." [3]