History of Art 211

Posts

Rebus Writing

November 18, 2020

Marriage between Lord 8 Deer and Lady 13 Serpent in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, c. 1450 CE, Mixtec (or Ñudzavui), Late Postclassic period, deerskin, folio 27 ( The British Museum ) For my first blog post of week 13 I decided to focus on something that I haven’t done before. In Mesoamerica there were many different cultures and inside each culture they each had different ways to communicate their beliefs. The two groups that really stood out to me during this time period were the Nahua and the Mixtec. Obviously, these are two completely different cultures but there was something that they shared. They shared a form of writing called “Rebus Writing” which means, “writing with pictures.” You may also hear this form of writing called “” writing without words” or “writing with signs” …. It is also called pictographic, ideographic, or picture writing.” According to Smart History. Instead of traditional writing with letters and words they use images to communicate what

Machu Picchu

November 11, 2020

Machu Picchu, Peru, c. 1450–1540 (photo: Sarahh Scher, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) For my first blog post of week 12, I decided to go with the beautiful Machu Picchu. Many people describe this estate as “mysterious” because of the location and the different architectural feats. These individuals aren’t wrong, but we do know a lot about Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was built for the great Inkan Emperor, Pachacuti Inka Yupanqui, during the 15 th century. This beautiful place over looks the Urubamba River which is now modern day Peru. This place was intended for the emperor and his family to host various events such as feasts, ceremonies, and to administer the affairs of the empire. This site was perfect for the empire because it provided sight lines to many of the other Andes mountain tops and valleys. This was important for the emperor because it gave him an advantage over his enemies because they could always prepare for an attack. According to Smart History, “The site contains housing for e

King Mishe

November 05, 2020

Ndop Portrait of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul , c. 1760-80, wood and camwood powder, 19-1/2 x 7-5/8 x 8-5/8″ (Brooklyn Museum) The second blog post that I am going to be talking about is about a portrait, of king Mishe miShyaang maMbul, carved out of wood. Artists in all different cultures create these remarkable pieces to honor these leaders. King Mishe was well known for his great generosity and his numerous loyal subjects. The king’s people even dedicated a “praise song” for him in his honor. The specific piece above is the idealized portrait-statue that he named an ndop. This specific ndop was purchased by the Brooklyn museum in 1961. At first, the ndop was founded in 1909 by colonial minister in which then was known as Belgian Congo. So why do we know who Alexander the great was but not King Mishe? This is because the Kuba peoples and their descendents didn’t use typical written records like other colonies. These individuals believed that oral narrative was the primary way for hi

The Great Zimbabwe

November 04, 2020

Aerial view of Great Zimbabwe’s Great Enclosure and adjacent ruins, looking southeast (photo: Janice Bell , CC BY-SA 4.0) For my first blog post of this week I am going to be focusing on the architectural landscapes of the Great Zimbabwe people in the sub-Saharan area. Aside from ancient Egypt, the stone complexes here are the largest in Africa built before the modern era. There aren’t a ton of ruins that have survived, but the ones that did are located about 4 hours from the capitol Harare. The ruins were inhabited by the Shona people until about 1450, the ruins were originally constructed between the 11 th and 15 th centuries. Great Zimbabwe was more than just one singular architectural landscape, in fact it is believed that there were about seven little states in the local region. The really interesting piece is the fact that Great Zimbabwe can be categorized into just about three different areas. These include, “the Hill Ruin (on a rocky hilltop), the Great Encl

Running Horned Women

October 30, 2020

Running Horned Woman , 6,000-4,000 B.C.E., pigment on rock, Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria For my second blog post this week I am going to be kind of tagging along with my first post. In my first post I discussed what “Rock Art” was and all the different details into it, but for this post I am going to be focusing on a single specific piece. The piece I am focusing on is called the Running Horned Women or also known as the Horned Goddess. This piece was also discovered by Lieutenant Brenans of the French Foreign Legion between the years 1933 and 1940. The specific location of this piece is very difficult to hike/climb/crawl to. A sketch of this piece (conducted by Lieutenant Brenans) can be found inside the Bardo Museum in Algiers. To truly reveal the Horned Goddess, the discoverer used a damp sponge of water, he dabbed the wall consecutively and carefully to reveal this figure. According to smart history, “Perhaps we have here the figure of a priestess of some agricultural religion

Rock Art

October 28, 2020

Painted rock art depicting five red figures, from Jabbaren, Ajjer Plateau, Djanet, Tassili, Algeria. 2013,2034.4248 © TARA/David Coulson Before diving into my post, I would like to say I found professor Zimmerman’s youtube video for this week very helpful for this section. I was very curious as to why this demographic was so interesting to you but now, I totally get it. It is crazy to me how overlooked this specific part of the world is overlooked. What I am going to be focusing on is rock art from North Africa. The specific pieces im referring to are located in Algeria with most of it falling inside the Sahara Desert. The most significant place to find this so called “rock art” is in the “Tassili n’Ajjer (meaning “plateau of chasms)” according to smart history. Over time sand and water has carved out hundreds of passageways, arches, and high stone pillars. Because of the undercuts, there are rock shelters that have been created with perfectly smooth walls on the inside. The Ajj

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