Artwork post: Staff of Office

 

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 human-like figures that appear to be flanking a large web with a spider at its center.  The design is depicted base of a saying, “No one goes to the house of the spider Ananse to teach him wisdom.”  Ananse the spider is a folk tail that is linked to the Akan people.  What the phrase means, is that neither the spider nor the linguist who wields the staff be challenged in their domains.  This piece of history has so much enveloped within that we may have only scraped the surface of its full meaning. 

 

Dr. Christa Clarke, "Historical overview: to 1600," in Smarthistory, September 21, 2016, accessed October 29, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/historical-overview/.

Comments

  1. Kirstyn CraigNovember 1, 2020 at 2:28 PM

    Great post! This is a visually interesting piece that is quite unique and very intriguing to the viewer. I initially thought the gold was an interesting choice but as a I read further I understood why that artistic choice was made. Overall, good job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Madison CunninghamNovember 1, 2020 at 4:41 PM

    Hello Brenden! I think you did a great job at describing this piece. I also wrote about the Linguist Staff! As I think most of us did because its such a beautiful and interesting piece of art. The gold foil caught my interest. But once I remembered gold is a representation of power and wealth, all was well. Hope you have a good week!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 1, 2020 at 5:57 PM

    Hey Brenden!

    It was nice to read your blog this week about the Linguistic Staff, I too wrote about it in mine. Something that I think worked out well for your post is that you talked more about the functionality of who may have used this staff and what the significance may have been behind it. I did not know that the spider actually had a name and was part of their African heritage as a folklore story! What was the full story behind the spider, like what did the spider do for their culture or belief system?
    -Autumn Fink

    ReplyDelete
  4. Emily SnyderNovember 1, 2020 at 10:56 PM

    I enjoyed reading this post! My favorite part is what the design means referring to, “No one goes to the house of the spider Ananse to teach him wisdom.” I also find it interesting that the staff determines someones wealth and placement. Good Job!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Artwork analysis: The Black Death

Image
 The art piece I chose to write about is called “The black death.”  The piece is a depiction of the black plague, with the plague personified as the black plague.  In the piece arrows are used to strike those around her, specifically in the neck or the armpit areas likely where the infection would spread.  Black death appeared in Europe around 1348, and it killed nearly a quarter to half the regions population.   The black plague victims would experience flu-like symptoms at first and then would see, “a swell beneath their armpits and their groins.”  The disease worked fast and killed fast.  Normandy had lost nearly 70-80 percent of its population.   The pandemic ended up killing approximately half of Europe’s population of all trades.   Young, old, rich, poor, religious or not.   During the time of the pandemic, William Langland, wrote in a poem saying, “God is deaf nowadays and will not hear us.   And for our guilt her g...
Read more

Artwork analysis: My son sanctuary

Image
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 ...
Read more

Artwork analysis: Igbo Ukwu

Image
The Igbo Ukwu is, and African Iron Age archaeological site located near tehe modern town of Onitsha.   There is a bronze container in the shape of a shell with no name from what I can find.   At the top of the container there is believed to be a leopard that is standing over a circular pedestal.   The shell is different in comparison to other shells in where there are specific designs to look like circles, diamonds, and herringbone ornamentation.   The leopard can be found on other imagery of Igbo Ukwu that has historians believe that the leopards have ritual importance. At another nearby site, at the Igbo Richard, a grave found near the home Richard Anozie.   The Igbo-Richard was a burial place for elite, wealthy people.   It is unknown if the person was a ruler or had some religious or secular role in their community.   A cast bronze leopard skull was found at this sight of Isaiah’s brother.   In this culture the leopard is a frequently chosen s...
Read more