History of art 211

  The Piece of art I chose to write about is on the Staff of Office that has a figure and spider web like features at the top of the staff.   The Piece is covered in gold, likely carried by those of high rank within the courts of Akan.   With this society having no written traditions, the Akan people used their emphasis in speech.   Those who were capable of knowledge and proper articulation in the language may be appointed as a court linguist, which is the most important nonroyal court official.   Court linguists are very important to the Akan’s leadership.   With the amount of knowledge and diplomacy they can take on just about any role.   Such as, counselors, ambassadors, legal experts, or even historians.   The Staff itself is carved out of wood then covered in a gold foil.   The staff is suspected to be made to mimic the cane that was used by the first court linguist, which was a woman who had carried the cane due to her age.   The design at the head of the staff uses two huma

  The comparison post I chose to write about are the Bayeux Tapestry and the Night attack on the Sanjô Palace.    The Bayeux Tapestry is a long piece that is 20 inches high and roughly 230 feet long.   The tapestry is a commemoration of the struggle for the throne of England between William who was the Duke of Normandy and Harold, the Earl of Wessex.   The tapestry has 75 scenes that depict the events of that lead up to the Norman conquest in 1066.   The end of the tapestry is missing but is believed that the ending shows the coronation of William as the King of England.   Though this is called a tapestry it is not a true tapestry as the images are more embroidered using wool and yarn than being woven into the cloth.   The main thing to know about the tapestry is that it is a close representation of the actions made through the times of war. The Night attack on the Sanjo Palace is an art piece displayed across scrolls called emaki.  This piece was made during the Kamakura period and is

  The piece I chose to write about it the artwork called, “The story of the God of Kitano Tenjin,” which was during the Kamakura period in the 13 th century.   The purpose of this these scrolls are to depict the origin of the Kitano Shrine of the Tenjin cult, one of the most important in Shinto, and indigenous religion of Japan.   The piece is to visually express using demons, spirits and humans the vengeance against the minister Fujiwara Tokihira which is seen in the piece brandishing a sword against the angry spirit of Sugawara-no-Michizane, Sugawara was a rival who was killed by Tokihira.   This piece is one of thirty-seven illustrations painted in the second half of the thirteenth century for one of the many Shinto shrines dedicated to appeasing the spirit of Michizane.   Each scroll during this time used ink and color on regular handscroll paper.   After the death of Michizane followed natural disasters and illness that plagued the capital.   Ever since his spirit had been dedica

The art piece I chose to write about this week is the alter-pedestal of the Mỹ Sơn sanctuary.  The alter-pedestal and the sanctuary that hold the pedestal was a temple that was made to praise Hindu gods.  From the 4 th to the 13 th centuries this was a sacred sight that had more than seventy Hindu temples.  This temple was built for the God Siva which was built by the people of Champa.  Many of the temples made have survived since the 7 th century.  Inside the temples there is a rectangular room dedicated to an alter-pedestal at the center called a garba-griha, or sanctum.  The pedestal was symbolized to be a seat for the Hindu god Siva, and it was designed to resemble Meru, or, “the center of the universe,” where the gods live.  At the base of the steps to the alter there are three engraved shapes of men to symbolize that they are embracing the spiritual world above them. Above the first set of figures lays 3 more male figures that is holding from what it looks like a ritual cloth.