African Art History Midterm (Tassili n' Ajjer, Egypt, Jenne-Jeno, Djenne, Nok, Ife, Benin, Yoruba)

formal analysis

analyzing what the visual components of a piece accomplish

form

components: line, shape, color, texture, mass, space, volume, & composition

line

an element the length of which is so much greater than the width that we perceive it as having only length

• Actual: When the line is visible

• Implied: When the movement of the viewer’s eyes over the surface of a work follows a path determined by the artist

• lines can be diagonal, horizontal, curvilinear, thick, thin, etc.

shape

the two-dimensional, or flat, area defined by the borders of an enclosing outline or contour

• can be geometric/regular, biomorphic/organic/irregular, closed, or open

color

includes hue, value, and saturation

hue

the exact shade of a color

value

the lightness or darkness of a hue. 

• High: closer to white

• Low: closer to black

saturation

the quality or brightness/darkness of a hue (aka intensity)

• *black and white don’t count because they are not hues*

biomorphic

describes shapes derived from organic or natural forms

geometric

normal shaped (textbook definition)

real texture

the texture of the actual surface of the artwork

• i.e. fur is soft

implied texture

illusionistically described surface of objects represented in an artwork

• i.e. a painting of fur looks soft

real mass

how dense an object is

implied mass

the visual mass of the artwork

space (depth)

Ways in which a 2-dimensional piece is made to look 3-dimensional

• consists of: diminution, atmospheric perspective, vertical perspective, overlap, 1 and 2 point perspective, modeling, and foreshortening

diminution

the systematic de-scaling of something in the background

atmospheric perspective

things meant to be farther away appear hazy and less detailed

vertical perspective

things towards the top of the image are farther away, while things towards the bottom of the image are closer

overlap

the object on the top is closer

1 and 2 point perspective

a system of perspective that utilizes a single vanishing point and causes parts of the image to look as if they recede into the distance

modeling

making something look 3-dimensional, whether via shading or carving

foreshortening

rendering objects so they appear to recede in three-dimensional space

composition

the organization, or arrangement of forms in a work of art; how formal elements interact to create an effect/piece

realism

a *mid-nineteenth century artistic movement* characterized by subjects painted from everyday life in a naturalistic manner

representational

artwork that clearly depicts real objects

naturalism

artist’s attempts to represent the observable world in a manner that appears to describe its visual appearance accurately

idealization

strives to create images of physical perfection according to the prevailing values or tastes of a culture

abstract

art that does not represent an accurate depiction of visual reality, communicating instead through lines, shapes, colors, forms, and gestural marks

partial abstraction

features identifiable objects, people, or landscapes, but these have often been simplified, distorted, taken out of context, or rendered in non-realistic colors

full abstraction

does not draw any inspiration from visual reality

expressionism

styles in which the artist exaggerates aspects of form to draw out the beholder’s subjective response or to project the artist’s own subjective feelings

linear style

using line as the primary means of definition

painterly style

a style of representation in which vigorous, evident brushstrokes dominate, and outlines, shadows, and highlights are brushed in freely

content

artworks that communicate ideas, convey feelings or affirm the beliefs and values of their makers, their patrons, and usually the people who originally viewed or used them

Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria (Periods/Cultures/Kingdoms)

Prehistoric Cave Art (12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE)

• Archaic Style

• Large Wild Fauna Period

Prehistoric Cave Art (12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE) notes

• encapsulates almost all of North Africa, in and around the Sahara Desert

  • very rocky and largely uninhabitable

  • teople passed through before the Great Desecration, but very few people actually lived there

    • there is archaeological evidence of human presence, but no architectural remains or burial sites 

• 3 theories as to why people made paintings and carvings

  • Ritual Use

    • people may have interpreted the dramatic change of landscape as the spirit world (?)

  • Trade Routes

    • the sites could’ve been safe campsites and the paintings could be a means of communication for future travelers to warn them of dangerous animals and such

  • Sympathetic Magic:

    • when you do something like creating artwork in the hopes of affecting the real world around you

      • painting an elephant being killed, for example, to manifest a successful hunt

Prehistoric Cave Art (dates)

12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE

Prehistoric Cave Art (location)

Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria

Artwork ID: “Man: Bodies in Motion”

Period: Prehistoric Cave Art (Archaic Style)

Location: Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria

Dates: 12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE

Medium: pigment (ochre?) on sandstone

“Man: Bodies in Motion” notes

• very simplified, abstracted bodies, very repetitive, doing simple motions 

• infrared imaging revealed multiple layers 

  • unsure why they kept painting over one spot when other spots in the caves were available

    • could be a familial thing, each generation paints over the last 

    • could be just updating information, like an animal in the area going extinct

Artwork ID: “Masked Figures”

Period: Prehistoric Cave Art

Location: Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria

Dates: 12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE

Medium: pigment (ochre?) on sandstone

“Masked Figures” notes

• we have no idea what these are quite frankly

• shamanism? maybe?

Artwork ID: “Decorated Elephant Engraving”

Period: Prehistoric Cave Art (Large Wild Fauna Period)

Location: Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria

Dates: 12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE

Medium: engraved sandstone

“Decorated Elephant Engraving” notes

• large rock engravings of wild fauna

  • more expression, movement, and texture

  • fairly naturalistic, strict profiles - observational

• not on cliffsides, they’re usually underneath and inside sefars

Artwork ID: “Camels and Armed People”

Period: Prehistoric Cave Art

Location: Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria

Dates: 12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE

Medium: pigment (ochre?) on sandstone

animism

the general belief that there's a relationship between the natural world and the supernatural

composite view/pose

combining different viewpoints within a single representation

engraving

carving into something

idea vs. obeservation

cave paintings can be conceptual/descriptive (twisted perspective & exaggerated features to show the idea of reality)

• they can also be strictly profile/observation (show exactly what you see)

profile view

a drawing that shows an object as though you were looking at it from the side

sefar

a rock shelter

• inside sefars of the Ajjer Plateau are paintings; outside are carvings

superimposition

images were re-painted over old cave paintings

• might be informational or interactive

sympathetic magic

magic based on the assumption that a person or thing can be supernaturally affected through its name or an object representing it

• perhaps prehistoric people painted hunts/ bovids as a way to ensure a successful hunt

Ancient Egypt (Periods/Cultures/Kingdoms)

Period: Pre-Dynastic Period (3,000_BCE - 2,700_BCE)
Kingdom: Old Kingdom (2,650_BCE - 2,150_BCE)
Kingdom: Middle Kingdom (1,975_BCE - 1,640_BCE)
Kingdom: New Kingdom (1,550_BCE - 1,070_BCE)
Period: Amarna Period (c. 1,350_BCE)

Ancient Egypt (location)

Egypt

Pre-Dynastic Period (dates)

3,000_BCE - 2,700_BCE

Artwork ID: “Palette of Narmer”

Period: Pre-Dynastic Period

Location: Egypt

Dates: 3,000_BCE - 2,700_BCE

Medium: green schist

“Palette of Narmer” notes

• ceremonial, not functional

• hieratic scale

• sets in motion styles unique to Egypt: 

  • iconography, upright= alive, compromised position= dying/ dead

• has registers (ground lines to organize space)

• Narmer seen as god descendant (not a god himself)

• barefoot: Narmer on sacred ground

Old Kingdom (2,650_BCE - 2,150_BCE) notes

• Egyptian conventions solidified (and stay consistent for another 2,000 yrs)

• architecture: mastaba --> stepped pyramid --> pyramid

Old Kingdom (dates)

2,650_BCE - 2,150_BCE

Artwork ID: “Stepped Pyramid of Djoser”

Artist: Imhotep

Kingdom: Old Kingdom

Location: Saqqara, Egypt (necropolis of ancient Memphis)

Dates: 2,650_BCE - 2,150_BCE

Medium: limestone

“Stepped Pyramid of Djoser” notes

• first piece with a known artist

• introduces the idea of verticality

Artwork ID: “Great Pyramids of Giza”

Kingdom: Old Kingdom

Location: Giza, Egypt

Dates: 2,650_BCE - 2,150_BCE

Medium: limestone

“Great Pyramids of Giza” notes

• Khafre, Khufu, & Menkaure

• gets even more complex inside than previous burial sites to ward off grave robbers

• took 20 years to build but probably should've taken 100

• continues idea of verticality 

  • maybe supposed to draw you up towards gods? 

  • maybe geometric perfection meant to stand out? 

  • maybe looks like the shape of Ra's sunbeams?

Artwork ID: “Seated Khafre/Khafre Enthroned”

Kingdom: Old Kingdom

Location: Egypt

Dates: 2,650_BCE - 2,150_BCE

Medium: diorite

“Seated Khafre/Khafre Enthroned” notes

• seated in conventional way for Pharaohs' depiction 

  • rigid = stability, 

  • fist with scroll = intellectual

  • open palm = unpredictable

  • detached = timeless

• Horus wraps wings around him (blessed by gods)

• diorite: rare, hard stone that shines blue in light 

  • blue= Horus's color

Artwork ID: “Menkaure and Queen Khamerenebty”

Kingdom: Old Kingdom

Location: Egypt

Dates: 2,650_BCE - 2,150_BCE

Medium: graywacke

“Menkaure and Queen Khamerenebty” notes

• one foot in front of other to show figures are alive/moving forward

• very rigid

• unusual that the queen is shown

• queen’s pose implies providing support to the pharaoh (likely)

Middle Kingdom (1,975_BCE - 1,640_BCE) notes

• focused on surviving

• lots of war/chaos/upheaval, so there's not much art

• Pharaohs trying to keep Egypt above water

Middle Kingdom (dates)

1,975_BCE - 1,640_BCE

Artwork ID: “Head of Senusret III”

Kingdom: Middle Kingdom

Location: Egypt

Dates: 1,975_BCE - 1,640_BCE

Medium: yellow quartzite

“Head of Senusret III” notes

• first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom

• looks more stoic, serious, and wise

  • the ideal is now an older, aged face

  • older = more experience = trustworthy leader

    • wrinkles, less full face, sunken eyes

    • the life expectancy at the time wasn’t high, so aging was a privilege

• the dude with the ears

Artwork ID: “Stele of the Sculptor Userwer”

Artist: Userwer

Kingdom: Middle Kingdom

Location: Egypt

Dates: 1,975_BCE - 1,640_BCE

Medium: limestone

“Stele of the Sculptor Userwer” notes

• first 2 registers = hieroglyphs

• last 2 registers = images

• the only reason Userwer had a stele is because he was a sculptor and made it for himself

  • common people didn’t usually have that privilege

• funerary stele

• manifesting taking care of the dead

• regional style was very stiff

New Kingdom (1,550_BCE - 1,070_BCE) notes

• most prosperous time in Egypt

• return to tradition & more art

New Kingdom (dates)

1,550_BCE - 1,070_BCE

Artwork ID: “Hatshepsut Kneeling with Offering Jars”

Kingdom: New Kingdom

Location: Egypt

Dates: 1,975_BCE - 1,640_BCE

Medium: red granite

“Hatshepsut Kneeling with Offering Jars” notes

• not holding scroll

  • offering jars might be a homage to the people who helped her become Pharaoh

• nothing to indicate femininity, depicted as any other male pharaoh would be

• had to be recovered from pieces

  • Thutmose III tried to erase her from history

Artwork ID: “Ramose's Brother May and his Wife Werner”

Kingdom: New Kingdom

Location: Egypt

Dates: 1,975_BCE - 1,640_BCE

Medium: limestone

“Ramose's Brother May and his Wife Werner” notes

• Ramose was 2nd in command to Amenhotep III

  • “mayor” of Thebes

• found in tomb of Ramose

  • tomb was never finished b/c Akhenaten moved the capital from Thebes to Tel-el-Amarna

• lots of texture on hair/ clothes (individuality creeping into style)

• space makes more sense than Middle Kingdom art

• all these components show the sophistication of the New Kingdom

Artwork ID: “Innermost Coffin from Tutankhamun's Sarcophagus”

Kingdom: New Kingdom

Location: Egypt

Dates: 1,975_BCE - 1,640_BCE

Medium: gold with inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones

“Innermost Coffin from Tutankhamun's Sarcophagus” notes

• dressed like Osiris

• first untouched tomb that archaeologists found

• shows return to old Egyptian tradition/ideals after whatever the fuck the Amarna period was

Artwork ID: “Last Judgement of Hu-Nefer”

Kingdom: New Kingdom

Location: Egypt

Dates: 1,975_BCE - 1,640_BCE

Medium: painted papyrus scroll

“Last Judgement of Hu-Nefer” notes

• Hu-Nefer was a royal scribe

• shows continuous narration (same figure shown in multiple times to show the story is progressing)

• Osiris gets lots of visual mass and the horizontal lines point to him

• Anubis (Jackel-headed god) leads Hu-Nefer to judgement area, then supervising scales

• Horus (falcon-headed god) leads Hu-Nefer to Osiris (the green one)

Amarna Period (c. 1,350_BCE) notes

• Amenhotep III has Amenhotep IV (Amun is the traditional god of the sun; highest god)

  • Amenhotep IV changes his name to Akhenaten and makes Aten the new sun god, and the only god of the new religion

• Akhenaten has Tutankaten

  • Tutankaten changes his name to Tutankhamun, moves capitol back to Thebes, and reinstates original religion/art traditions

Amarna Period (dates)

c. 1,350_BCE

Artwork ID: “Akhenaten”

Period: Amarna Period

Location: Egypt

Dates: c. 1,350_BCE

Medium: sandstone

“Akhenaten” notes

• Nemis headdress, beard, crook & whip of Osiris stayed the same

• more details in clothes and jewelry

• face is very long & thin, has very defined facial features

• very curvy & androgynous figure

  • Probably tied to Aten b/c they are genderless and Akhenaten saw himself as the physical manifestation of Aten

• originally Amenhotep IV, changed to Akhenaten after coming into power

• things kept from the past: beard and headdress

  • name means "effective on behalf of Aten"

    • not a god himself, but appointed by the gods (this is deviant from tradition of Pharaohs being a god)

Artwork ID: “Bust of Nefertiti”

Artist: Thutmose

Period: Amarna Period

Location: Egypt

Dates: c. 1,350_BCE

Medium: painted limestone

“Bust of Nefertiti” notes

• wife of Akhenaten

• very well known for her beauty

  • name means "the beautiful one has come"

• very idealized image

  • large eyes, long neck, small jaw

  • large headdress gives her head a lot of visual mass

  • these beauty conventions align with the standards of 20th/21st centuries

Artwork ID: “Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Three Daughters”

Period: Amarna Period

Location: Egypt

Dates: c. 1,350_BCE

Medium: sunken relief on limestone

“Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Three Daughters” notes

• depiction of the Pharaoh’s children is new

  • The kids look like aliens lol

• curvilinear style

• Akhenaten and Nefertiti are portrayed as equals

  • king and queen are the same size, Akhenaten isn’t in the center, facing each other, both are playing w/ the kids, 2 of the kids are facing Nefertiti, similar headdresses, Aten holds ankhs out to both of them, Nefertiti’s seat has papyrus on the sides which was only reserved for pharaohs

funerary mask

a mask that goes over the mummy's face

sarcophagus

stone box-like container for the 3 inner coffins

Nemes headdress

striped head-cloth typically worn by Pharaohs

• Uraeus = protective cobra often seen on headdress of Pharaohs

ankh

symbol of life (mortal and eternal)

hypostyle hall

geometric sections that can be repeated to form a structure

• in this case, pillars in a square unit that is repeated to form a hall

stele

upright tablet to communicate information

hieratic scale

a method of indicating the importance of individuals through relative size, regardless of actual dimensions

• persons of lesser importance are thus depicted smaller in size in relation to their superiors

registers

scenes ordered in parallel lines

• separate scenes and provide ground lines for figures