My visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art continued in the gallery of African art.
History books often neglect the many civilizations that existed in Africa, most of them unknown to the Europeans of the time. The museum has a number of pieces representing those cultures.
The oldest piece that I saw in the gallery was this terracotta head which most likely is a fragment of a life size figure. It dates from between 600 B.C. and A.D. 250. and comes from the Nok culture which flourished for 2000 years in what is today Nigeria.
This very realistic terracotta head dates from between 1100 and 1500. It comes from Ife which was the capital of the Yoruba people of present day Nigeria.
The KIngdom of Benin, which was also located in present-day Nigeria, was a major power from the 12th century onwards. The King's palace was decorated with 900 metal plaques. When the British army arrived in 1897 they looted the palace of its treasures. Many of the plaques ended up in the British Museum or were sold.
The Kings of Benin would also commission objects for a shrine to honor their predecessor. This commemorative head is probably from the mid-1500s. The layers of necklaces are a symbol of the King's authority.
This soapstone figure dates from the early 1400s and is from the Sapi people of present day Sierra Leone.
The majority of the objects in the gallery are of more recent origin, from the 19th or 20th centuries.
A bush buffalo mask from Burkina Faso
A ram mask, also from Burkina Faso
A veranda post from a palace of the Yoruba people of Nigeria
This guardian figure from Gabon looks very much like a piece of modern, abstract sculpture.
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