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African royal court art / Michèle Coquet ; translated by Jane Marie Todd.
LIBRA N7391.65 .C66613 1998
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Coquet, Michèle.
- Standardized Title:
- Arts de cour en Afrique noire. English
- Language:
- English
- French
- Subjects (All):
- Art, Black--Africa, Sub-Saharan.
- Art, Black.
- Symbolism in art--Africa, Sub-Saharan.
- Symbolism in art.
- Art and state--Africa, Sub-Saharan.
- Art and state.
- Narrative art--Africa, Sub-Saharan.
- Narrative art.
- Kings and rulers.
- Art patronage.
- Africa, Sub-Saharan--Kings and rulers--Art patronage.
- Africa, Sub-Saharan.
- Africa, Sub-Saharan--Court and courtiers--Portraits.
- Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Courts and courtiers.
- Portraits.
- Physical Description:
- xi, 181 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 29 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1998.
- Summary:
- In this visually stunning work, anthropologist Michele Coquet presents the power and the brilliance of African court arts. Grounding her analysis in the social and historical context of traditional royalty systems, Coquet examines the diverse roles played by artisans, nobles, and kings in the production and use of royal objects. Considering the precolonial kingdoms of the Edo and the Yoruba, the Ashanti and the Igbo, Coquet reconstructs from a comparativist view the essential cultural connections between art, representation, and the king. More than ornamentation, royal objects embodied the strength and status of African rulers. The gold-plated stools of the Ashanti, the delicately carved ivory bracelets of the Edo -- these objects were meant not simply to adorn but to affirm and enhance the power and prestige of the wearer. Unlike the abstract style frequently seen in African ritual art, realism became manifest in courtly arts. Realism directly linked the symbolic value of the object -- a portrait or relief -- with the physical person of the king. The contours of the monarch's face, his political and military exploits rendered on palace walls, became visual histories, the work of art in essence corroborating the ruler's sovereign might.
- Richly illustrated and wonderfully detailed, Coquet's influential volume offers both a splendid visual presentation and an authoritative analysis of African royal arts.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-177) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0226115755
- OCLC:
- 38295141
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