Dynast and Divinity presents a major part of the extraordinary
corpus of ancient Ife art in terra-cotta, stone, and metal, dating
from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. Artists at Ife, the
ancient city-state of the Yoruba people of West Africa (located in
present-day southwestern Nigeria), created sculpture that ranks
among the most aesthetically striking and technically sophisticated
in the world. Dynasty and Divinity reveals the extraordinarily
creative range of Ife art through a diversity of objects that
includes handsome idealized portrait heads, exquisite miniatures,
expressive caricatures of old age, lively animals, and sculptures
showing the impressive regalia worn by Ife's kings and queens.
Together, these illuminate one of the world's greatest art centers
and demonstrate the technological sophistication of Ife artists, as
well as the rich aesthetic language they developed in order to
convey ideas about worldly and divine power.--The refined
sculptures from Ife demonstrate the dignity and self-assurance
associated with the idea of dynasty, as well as the results of
misfortunes and violence that could befall human beings--both fates
shaped by divine as well as human interventions. Among the many
masterpieces from Ife art in this book are a group of life-size
copper portrait heads, carved stone animals, and the spectacular
seated male figure found in the town of Tada, Nigeria, shown
dressed in an elaborate textile. All of the objects come from the
collection of the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and
Monuments.--Henry John Drewal, a noted scholar of Yoruba and
African diaspora arts, explores the significance of Ife's stone,
terra-cotta, and metal sculptures in the context of Yoruba history
and culture. Today, the city of Ife is still a spiritual heartland
for the 29 million Yoruba people living in Nigeria and countless
descendants in the Americas and elsewhere in the world. Drewal
explores the purposes for which this art may have been made and its
relationship to Yoruba ideas about leadership, divinity, gender,
and aesthetics. In an introductory essay, Enid Schildkrout, an
anthropologist who has curated major exhibitions on Africa, shows
how this first assemblage of the full range of Ife art gives the
most complete portrayal of an ancient African city ever presented
in a single exhibition.--Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient
Nigeria accompanies an exhibition co-organized by the Museum for
African Art, New York City, and the Fundacion Marcelino Botin,
Santander, Spain, in collaboration with the National Commission for
Museums and Monuments, Nigeria. The exhibition will appear at the
British Museum, London, as Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures of West
Africa.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
