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Essay about Art of Portraiture

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art of portraiture The three works that I chose that are art of portraiture are Head of a King,
Mask of an Lyoba, and Mother Goddess. The first two portraits are West African
Art from two different tribes, Ife, who created the Head of a King and Benin, whom created the Mask of an Lyoba. The Mother Goddess is an Aztec piece. These groups of people are from different cultures, time periods, and share different religious beliefs. The similarity of the groups is the symbolic meaning the portraitures brought to its people.

The first work is the Head of a King. This Ife creation altered the perception that scholars had of the tribe. It was known that the Ife tribes did not do portraits because of the spirits that could harm …show more content…

The Mask of an Lyoba is a beautiful ornamental mask of royalty. This works shows that the people no longer use the naturalistic approach, but a bold, more idealized, representation of its people. The art of
Benin is a royal art, only the oba could commission the works. This work was commissioned in ivory, but most of the works were commissioned in brass. The
Benin transition from naturalistic to stylize is better explained in the brass heads. It ranges from small, thinly cast, and naturalistic to large, thickly cast, and highly stylized. The conclusion of scholars is that in their Early
Period, their heads were small and naturalistic from the Ife influence. Heads then grew increasingly stylized during the Middle Period. Then in the Late
Period, the heads were very large and heavy, with angular stylized features and an elaborate beaded crown.

In Mexico there was also portraitures. Specifically in the Aztec Empire were the
Mother Goddess was created. This was a strong and powerful empire that was divided in classes. The religion was based on a complex pantheon that combined the Aztec deities with more ancient ones that had long been worshiped in Central
Mexico. According to the Aztec belief, the gods created the current universe at the ancient city of Teothhuacan. Which is similar to the Ife belief that Gods came down

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