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Places  > Africa

Africa

Basics Timeline Works of Art Artists Periods, Cultures, Styles Curated Guides

Places  > Africa

Africa

Basics Timeline Works of Art Artists Periods, Cultures, Styles Curated Guides

Basics to get you started

Africa historical overview: to 1600

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Africa historical overview: from the 1600s to the present

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Peoples and cultures of Africa

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Form and meaning in African art

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Aesthetics and African art

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African religion and the spiritual realm

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Rites of passage in Africa

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African art and the individual

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Masquerade basics

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The reception of African art in the West

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African art and politics

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Materials and techniques in ancient Egyptian art

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Tiny timeline: ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in a global context, 5th–3rd millennia B.C.E.

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Tiny timeline: ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in a global context, 2nd–1st millennia B.C.E.

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King Piye and the Kushite control of Egypt

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Byzantine Egypt and the Coptic period, an introduction

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Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period, an introduction

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Late Period and the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, an introduction

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Creation myths and form(s) of the gods in ancient Egypt

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Private tombs, portals to the afterlife

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The kingdom of Aksum

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Christian Ethiopian art

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Kingdom of Ife: sculptures from West Africa

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Benin and the Portuguese

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Pageantry in the Palace—Bamum Kingdom, Cameroon

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Medieval Nubian Kingdoms, an introduction

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The story of Ernest Cole, a Black photographer in South Africa during apartheid

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Mickalene Thomas on Seydou Keïta

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The Kingdom of Kush in ancient Nubia, an introduction

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Illumination of the Qur’an

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The Black Atlantic: identity and nationhood

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The Black Atlantic: toppled monuments and hidden histories

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The Black Atlantic: afterlives of slavery in contemporary art

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Egyptian Surrealism, an introduction

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Omar Victor Diop: Black subjects in the frame

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Surrealism: Imagining A New World

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Zineb Sedira – ‘The Personal is Political’

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Arts of the Islamic world

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Cultural heritage at risk: Egypt

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Cultural heritage at risk: Mali

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Jewish history in the post-war period

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Ancient Persia, an introduction

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Modern art and reality

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Paleolithic art, an introduction

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The Neolithic revolution

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The Umayyads, an introduction

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Ancient Egypt, an introduction

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Ancient Egyptian chronology and historical framework

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Benin art: patrons, artists, and current controversies

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Egyptian social organization—from the pharaoh to the farmer (part 1)

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Africa in the European imagination

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The Buddha’s long “journey” to Europe and Africa

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Staging the Egyptian harem for Western eyes

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Damnatio memoriae—Roman sanctions against memory

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Byzantine art, an introduction

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Assyria, an introduction

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Jewish history to the middle ages

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The rise of the Ottoman Empire

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The vibrant visual cultures of the Islamic West, an introduction

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Contemporary art, an introduction

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The vita icon in the medieval era

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Ancient Greece, an introduction

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The Case for Surrealism

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Surrealist Techniques: Subversive Realism

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Surrealist Techniques: Automatism

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The Black Death

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Rome’s history in four faces at The Met

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Surrealism and Women

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Surrealism, an introduction

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Surrealism: Origins and Precursors

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An interview with artist Ogawa Machiko

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Classicism and the Early Middle Ages

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The medieval calendar

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Ancient Roman art, an introduction

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Innovative architecture in the age of Justinian

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Sasanian art, an introduction

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Contrapposto explained

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Surrealism and Psychoanalysis

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Wearable art in Byzantium

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Mosaics in the early Islamic world

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Women in Roman art

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Ancient and Byzantine mosaic materials

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Illumination of Jewish biblical texts

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Medieval notepads

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What can be done to protect cultural heritage?

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Seizure of looted antiquities illuminates what museums want hidden

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Trafficking the past

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Early Christianity, an introduction

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Who’s who? How to recognize saints…

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The rise and fall of the Avis dynasty in Portugal, an introduction

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An interview with Sheba Chhachhi

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Assyrian sculpture

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Cross-cultural artistic interaction in the Early Byzantine period

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Expression and modern art

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Early Byzantine architecture after Constantine

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Common types of mosque architecture

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Medieval supermodels

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Meriem Bennani’s Exploded Visions

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Obelisks and ancient Rome

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Paintings in the early Islamic world

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A race against time: manuscripts and digital preservation

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Visions of Paradise in a Global Middle Ages

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Western appreciation of African art

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Pilgrimage souvenirs 

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Arts of the Islamic world: The early period

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Arts of the Islamic world: The later period

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Arts of the Islamic world: The medieval period

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Mamluk bindings

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Jewish history 1750 to WW II

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African religious culture in the Atlantic world

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Performance art, an introduction

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How to recognize the Four Evangelists

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The court carpets of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires, an introduction

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Reimagining Africa’s place in Byzantine art history

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The complex geometry of Islamic design

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The fall of the Ottoman Empire

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The Cairo Geniza: medieval preservation and reuse

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Timeline

Timelines Graphic

Book of the Dead of Hunefer, c. 1275 B.C.E. (19th Dynasty), painted papyrus, 45.7 x 83.4 cm (Thebes, Egypt; © The Trustees of the British Museum, London)

Africa before 1500

  • Introduction
    • Africa historical overview: to 1600
    • Paleolithic art, an introduction
    • The Neolithic revolution
    • Origins of rock art in Africa
    • Prehistoric rock art in North Africa
    • Ancient Rome, an introduction
    • Ancient Roman art, an introduction
    • The Middle Ages, an introduction
    • Pilgrimage souvenirs 
    • Byzantine Empire
      • Byzantine art, an introduction
      • About the chronological periods of the Byzantine Empire
      • Reimagining Africa’s place in Byzantine art history
      • Cross-cultural artistic interaction in the Early Byzantine period
      • Cross-cultural artistic interaction in the Middle Byzantine period
      • Icons, an introduction
      • The vita icon in the medieval era
    • The Islamic World
      • Arts of the Islamic world
      • The vibrant visual cultures of the Islamic West, an introduction
      • Mosque architecture, an introduction
      • Common types of mosque architecture
      • Arts of the Islamic world: The early period
      • The Umayyads, an introduction
      • Paintings in the early Islamic world
      • Mosaics in the early Islamic world
      • Muqarnas, an introduction
      • The Qur’an and the development of Arabic scripts between the 7th and 12th centuries
      • Arts of the Islamic world: The medieval period
    • Religion in Africa
      • African religion and the spiritual realm
      • Christianity
        • Christianity, an introduction
        • The Christian Bible
      • Judaism
        • Judaism, an introduction
        • Jewish history to the middle ages
        • Jewish ceremonial art
        • Writing a history of Jewish architecture
      • Islam
        • Islam, an introduction
        • The Five Pillars of Islam
        • The Qur’an
      • The Buddha’s long “journey” to Europe and Africa
  • Algeria
    • Paleolithic
      • Rock-Art Sites of Tadrart Acacus
    • Neolithic
      • Running Horned Woman, Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria
    • Early Roman Empire
      • Djémila
    • Amazigh (Berber)
      • Al Qal’a of Beni Hammad
      • Great Mosque of Tlemcen
  • Burkina Faso
    • Lohron / Koulango
      • Ruins of Loropéni
  • Egypt
    • Cultural heritage at risk: Egypt
    • Ancient Egypt
      • Introduction
        • Ancient Egypt, an introduction
        • Ancient Egyptian chronology and historical framework
        • Ancient Egyptian art
        • Materials and techniques in ancient Egyptian art
        • Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs overview
        • Mummification and funeral rites
        • Private tombs, portals to the afterlife
        • Ancient Egyptian mortuary texts, an introduction
        • Creation myths and form(s) of the gods in ancient Egypt
        • Egyptian deities
        • Egyptian social organization—from the pharaoh to the farmer (part 1)
        • Egyptian social organization—from the pharaoh to the farmer (part 2)
        • Multilingualism along the Nile
        • Tiny timeline: ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in a global context, 5th–3rd millennia B.C.E.
        • Tiny timeline: ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in a global context, 2nd–1st millennia B.C.E.
      • Predynastic and Early Dynastic Period
        • Predynastic and Early Dynastic, an introduction
        • Decorated jar
        • Palette of King Narmer
        • King Den’s sandal label
        • Statue of seated man, Ankhwa
      • Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period
        • Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period, an introduction
        • Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara
        • Pyramid of Khafre and the Great Sphinx
        • Pyramid of Khufu
        • Pyramid of Menkaure
        • The Seated Scribe
        • The Great Pyramids of Giza
        • King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and queen
        • Wooden tomb statue of Tjeti
      • Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period
        • Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period, an introduction
        • Statue of an Offering Bearer, Tomb of Meketre
        • The White Chapel
        • Apotropaic wand
        • Standing Hippopotamus
        • Scarab pendant
        • Pectoral and necklace of Sithathoryunet
        • Statues of Senusret III
        • Stela of the sculptor Userwer
        • Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis
      • New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period
        • New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, an introduction
        • Mortuary Temple and Large Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut
        • The New York Obelisk, Cleopatra’s Needle
        • Paintings from the tomb of Sebekhotep
        • Lateran Obelisk
        • Bronze statuette of Thutmose IV
        • Portrait Head of Queen Tiye
        • The tomb-chapel of Nebamun
        • Paintings from the Tomb-chapel of Nebamun
        • House Altar depicting Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Three of their Daughters
        • Thutmose, Model Bust of Queen Nefertiti
        • Barry X Ball on an Egyptian fragment of a queen’s face
        • Canopic Jar with a Lid in the Shape of a Royal Woman’s Head
        • Head of Tutankhamun
        • Tutankhamun’s tomb (innermost coffin and death mask)
        • Hunefer’s Judgement in the presence of Osiris
        • Temple of Amun-Re and the Hypostyle Hall, Karnak
        • A bottle and a toy: Objects from daily life
        • Cult Image of the God Ptah
      • Late period, Ptolemaic Period, and the Roman Empire
        • Late Period and the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, an introduction
        • Late Period
          • King Piye and the Kushite control of Egypt
          • Meet an Ushabti, an Ancient Egyptian Statuette Made for the Afterlife
        • Ptolemaic Period
          • Portraits of Alexander the Great
          • The Rosetta Stone
        • Roman Empire
          • Obelisks and ancient Rome
          • The Temple of Dendur
          • Egyptian mummy portraits
          • Mummy of Herakleides
          • Painted portrait of Isis: between empires and icons
          • The Severan Tondo: damnatio memoriae in ancient Rome
          • Bust of an African Child
    • Byzantine Empire (Coptic Period)
      • Byzantine Egypt and the Coptic period, an introduction
      • Fragment from a Coptic Hanging
      • Bridal Chest
      • The Red Monastery, Sohag
      • Art and architecture of Saint Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai
      • Abu Mena
      • Icon with Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George
      • Magical Text (Spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice)
      • Glass dish, Coptic
      • Coptic silk panel
      • The Romanos chalices and the chalice with hares
      • Annunciation, frontispiece for Miscellany in Honor of the Virgin Mary
      • Portrait of a Coptic Patriarch
      • Vita Icon of Saint George with Scenes of His Passion and Miracles
      • Icon with the Virgin Hodegetria Dexiokratousa
    • Umayyad Caliphate
      • Marwan tiraz
      • Conserving an Egyptian Tunic
    • Fatimid Caliphate
      • The beginnings of Cairo, the city victorious
      • Gold pendant with inset enamel decoration
      • Rock crystal ewer, San Marco
      • The Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat, Egypt
      • The Cairo Geniza: medieval preservation and reuse
    • Mamluk Sultanate
      • Mamluk bindings
      • A Mamluk candlestick base
      • Mamluk Qur’an
      • Muhammad ibn al-Zain, Basin (Baptistère de Saint Louis)
      • Madrasa and Friday Mosque of Sultan Hasan, Cairo
      • A glass lamp: illuminating sultan Hassan’s mosque and madrasa
  • Ethiopia
    • Christian Ethiopian art
    • Aksumite
      • The kingdom of Aksum
      • City of Aksum
      • Aksumite coins
    • Solomonic period
      • Illuminated Gospel
      • An Ethiopian icon
  • Libya
    • Middle Roman Empire
      • Leptis Magna
      • Ancient Sabratha
  • Mali
    • Cultural heritage at risk: Mali
    • Songhai Empire
      • Tomb of Askia
    • Djenné
      • Seated Figure (Djenné peoples)
      • Great Mosque of Djenné
  • Morocco
    • Early Roman Empire
      • Volubilis
  • Namibia
    • Paleolithic
      • Apollo 11 Cave Stones
  • Nigeria
    • Ife
      • Kingdom of Ife: sculptures from West Africa
      • Head of a ruler, Ife
    • Igbo-Ukwu
      • Igbo-Ukwu
  • Senegal
    • Stone circles of Senegambia
  • South Africa
    • San
      • uKhahlamba Drakensberg rock paintings (San)
  • Sudan
    • Ancient Nubian
      • The Kingdom of Kush in ancient Nubia, an introduction
      • Meroitic period of the Kingdom of Kush
      • Pylon of the Nubian Lion Temple at Naga
      • Pyramids of Sudan
    • Early Roman Empire
      • Head of Augustus at Meroë
    • Medieval Nubian
      • Medieval Nubian Kingdoms, an introduction
      • Bishop Petros from the Cathedral of Faras
  • Tanzania
    • Paleolithic
      • Our earliest technology? A prehistoric handaxe
    • Swahili civilization
      • Kilwa Kisiwani
      • Kilwa pot sherds
  • Tunisia
    • Punic
      • Carthage
    • Middle Roman Empire
      • Amphitheater of El Jem
    • Late Roman Empire
      • African Red Slip Ware Jug
    • Aghlabid Caliphate
      • The Great Mosque of Kairouan
  • Zimbabwe
    • Shona
      • Great Zimbabwe
  • Unknown (North Africa?)
    • Byzantine Empire
      • Byzantine Mosaic of a Personification, Ktisis

Africa 1500–today

  • Introduction
    • Africa historical overview: from the 1600s to the present
    • Peoples and cultures of Africa
    • Aesthetics and African art
    • The human figure, animals and symbols in African art
    • Form and meaning in African art
    • African art and politics
    • Rites of passage in Africa
    • Masquerade basics
    • Photographic postcards of West African masquerade
    • African art and the individual
    • African art and the effects of European contact and colonization
    • Africa in the European imagination
    • The reception of African art in the West
    • Western appreciation of African art
    • Modern art and reality
    • Expression and modern art
    • Postmodernism
    • Contemporary art, an introduction
    • The case for copying
    • The Islamic World
      • Arts of the Islamic world
      • Arts of the Islamic world: The later period
      • The rise of the Ottoman Empire
      • Mosque architecture, an introduction
      • Common types of mosque architecture
      • Muqarnas, an introduction
    • The Black Atlantic
      • The Black Atlantic: what is the Black Atlantic?
      • The Black Atlantic: identity and nationhood
      • The Black Atlantic: toppled monuments and hidden histories
      • The Black Atlantic: afterlives of slavery in contemporary art
    • Religion in Africa
      • African religion and the spiritual realm
      • Judaism
        • Judaism, an introduction
        • The Torah and its adornment
        • Jewish ceremonial art
        • Writing a history of Jewish architecture
      • Christianity
        • Christianity, an introduction
        • The Christian Bible
      • Islam
        • Islam, an introduction
        • The Five Pillars of Islam
        • The Qur’an
      • African religious culture in the Atlantic world
      • The Buddha’s long “journey” to Europe and Africa
  • Algeria
    • Amazigh (Berber)
      • Amazigh Kabyle brooches (fibulae)
  • Angola
    • Chokwe
      • Chair or throne (Chokwe peoples)
  • Benin
    • Fon
      • Royal palaces of Abomey
      • Buffalo (Bocio) (Fon peoples)
      • Bocio (Fon peoples)
    • Bini-Portuguese
      • Spoons from West Africa in Renaissance Lisbon
    • Yoruba
      • Fagbite Asamu of Idahin and Falola Edun, Helmet Mask (Gelede)
  • Burkina Faso
    • Bwa
      • Mask (Nwantantay) (Bwa peoples)
    • Lohron / Koulango
      • Ruins of Loropéni
  • Cameroon
    • Grassfields region
      • Ceremonial Palm Wine Vessel (Cameroon Grasslands peoples)
      • Bamileke
        • Elephant Mask (Bamileke Peoples)
      • Bamum
        • Pageantry in the Palace—Bamum Kingdom, Cameroon
      • Bangwa
        • Figure of a Chief (Lefem) (Bangwa)
  • Democratic Republic of Congo
    • Chokwe
      • Female (pwo) Mask
    • Kongo
      • Crucifix (Kongo peoples)
      • Seated Figure (Tumba) (Kongo peoples)
      • Power Figure (Nkisi Nkondi), Kongo peoples
    • Kuba
      • Ndop Portrait of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul (Kuba peoples)
      • Double Prestige Panel (Kuba peoples)
    • Luba
      • Buli Master, possibly Ngongo ya Chintu, Prestige Stool: Female Caryatid (Luba or Hemba peoples)
      • Lukasa (Memory Board) (Luba peoples)
    • Mangbetu
      • Figurative Harp (Domu) (Mangbetu peoples)
    • Yaka
      • Headdress (Yaka peoples)
    • Modern/Postcolonial
      • Tshibumba Kanda Matulu, Le 30 juin 1960, Zaïre indépendant
  • Egypt
    • Ottoman Empire
      • The court carpets of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires, an introduction
      • The Cairo Geniza: medieval preservation and reuse
    • Romanticism
      • Staging the Egyptian harem for Western eyes
    • Modernisms
      • Art Deco
        • Mahmoud Moukhtar, The Bride of the Nile
      • Surrealism
        • Egyptian Surrealism, an introduction
        • Surrealism: Imagining A New World
  • Ethiopia
    • Christian Ethiopian art
    • Gunda Gundé
      • Gospel Book
    • Modernisms
      • Pan-Africanism and Skunder Boghossian’s Night Flight of Dread and Delight
      • Battle of Adwa
    • Contemporary
      • Julie Mehretu, Stadia II
      • Julie Mehretu, HOWL, eon (I, II)
  • Gabon
    • Fang
      • Male Reliquary Guardian Figure (Fang peoples)
      • Female Figure from a Reliquary Ensemble (Fang peoples)
    • Lumbo
      • Punu-Lumbo mask, from Gabon
    • Kota
      • Kota reliquary (mbulu ngulu)
  • Ghana
    • Akan
      • Memorial Head (Akan peoples)
      • Akua’ba Female Figure (Akan peoples)
      • Asante
        • Golden Stool (Sika dwa kofi), Asante peoples
        • Adinkra cloth
        • Linguist Staff (Okyeamepoma) (Asante peoples)
        • Kente cloth
      • Fante
        • Asafo flags
    • Avis Dynasty
      • The rise and fall of the Avis dynasty in Portugal, an introduction
    • Contemporary
      • El Anatsui, Old Man’s Cloth
      • El Anatsui, Untitled
      • Ga
        • Paa Joe, Coffin in the Form of a Nike Sneaker
        • Paa Joe: Gates of No Return
        • Coffin in the shape of an eagle
  • Guinea
    • Baga
      • Headdress: Female Bust (D’mba)
  • Ivory Coast
    • Baule
      • Pair of Diviner’s Figures (Baule peoples)
      • Owie Kimou, Portrait Mask (Mblo) of Moya Yanso (Baule peoples)
    • Senufo
      • Male and Female Poro altar figures (Senufo peoples)
  • Kenya
    • Swahili
      • A Qur’an manuscript from coastal East Africa
    • Contemporary
      • Magdalene Anyango N. Odundo, Symmetrical Reduced Black Narrow-Necked Tall Piece
      • Magdalene Anyango N. Odundo, Untitled (Vessel)
      • Wangechi Mutu, Preying Mantra
      • Wangechi Mutu, The NewOnes, will free Us
  • Liberia
    • Dan
      • Ceremonial Ladle (Dan peoples)
    • Mandinka
      • Man’s robe (boubou or kusaibi), unrecorded Mandinka artists
  • Madagascar
    • Merina
      • Silk textile (lamba akotofahana)
      • Martin Rakotoarimanana, Mantle (Lamba Mpanjaka)
  • Mali
    • Cultural heritage at risk: Mali
    • Mali Empire
      • Timbuktu
      • A race against time: manuscripts and digital preservation
    • Bamana
      • Mother and Child & Seated Male with Lance
      • Kòmò Helmet Mask (Kòmòkunw)
      • Male and Female Antelope Headdresses (Ci wara)
      • Guancho Diarra, woman’s wrapper (bògòlanfini)
    • Dogon
      • Ritual Container
      • Dogon Couple
      • Mask (Kanaga)
    • Modernisms
      • Mickalene Thomas on Seydou Keïta
      • Seydou Keïta, Untitled (Seated Woman with Chevron Print Dress)
      • Malick Sidibé, Nuit de Noël (Happy Couple)
    • Contemporary
      • Malick Sidibé, Vues de dos
        Getty Conversations
      • Abdoulaye Ndoye, Ahmed Baba
  • Morocco
    • Kasbah Taourirt: Conserving Earthen Heritage in Morocco
    • Amazigh (Berber)
      • Amazigh akhnif (hooded cloak)
      • Amazigh (Berber) jewelry
    • Contemporary
      • Meriem Bennani’s Exploded Visions
      • Yto Barrada, Ceuta Border, Illegally Crossing the Border into the Spanish Enclave of Ceuta, Tangier
      • Lalla Essaydi, Converging Territories #11
  • Nigeria
    • Kingdom of Benin
      • Benin art: patrons, artists, and current controversies
      • Benin and the Portuguese
      • The Benin “Bronzes”: a story of violence, theft, and artistry
      • Benin Plaques
      • Benin plaque: Equestrian Oba and Attendants
      • Benin ivory mask (Edo peoples)
      • Queen Mother Pendant Mask (Iyoba) (Edo peoples)
    • Ejagham
      • Janus-Faced Headdress (Ejagham or Bale peoples)
    • Igbo/Ibo
      • Ikenga (Igbo peoples)
      • “Mami Wata” figure, Igbo artist
    • Western Ijo
      • Shrine (Iphri) (Western Ijo peoples)
    • Yoruba
      • Ere Ibeji Figures (Yoruba peoples)
      • Ceremonial robe (agbádá ìlèkè), Yoruba artist
      • Olowe of Ise, Veranda Post of Enthroned King and Senior Wife
      • Olowe of Ise, veranda post (Yoruba peoples)
      • Ibadandun woman’s wrapper, unrecorded Yoruba artist
    • Modernisms
      • Uche Okeke
    • Contemporary
      • Yinka Shonibare, The Swing (After Fragonard)
  • Senegal
    • Modernisms
      • Photographic postcards of West African masquerade
    • Contemporary
      • Omar Victor Diop: Black subjects in the frame
  • Sierra Leone
    • Sapi-Portuguese
      • Lidded Saltcellar
    • Kisi
      • Stone Head (mahe yafei), Kisi peoples
    • Mende
      • Bundu / Sowei Helmet Mask (Mende peoples)
    • Vai
      • Cotton hammock (Vai peoples)
  • South Africa
    • Ndebele
      • Married Woman’s Apron (itjogolo or ijogolo), Ndebele peoples
    • San
      • uKhahlamba Drakensberg rock paintings
    • Southern Sotho
      • Thethana, South Sotho artist
    • Xhosa
      • Beaded collar (ingqosha), Xhosa artist, South Africa
    • Modernisms
      • The story of Ernest Cole, a Black photographer in South Africa during apartheid
    • Contemporary
      • Sue Williamson
        • Albertina Sisulu
        • For Thirty Years Next to His Heart
      • Jane Alexander, Butcher Boys
      • Santu Mofokeng
        • Train Churches
        • Figures & Fictions: Santu Mofokeng
      • William Kentridge, drawing from Tide Table (Soho in Deck Chair)
  • Sudan
    • Modernisms
      • Ibrahim El-Salahi, Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams
      • Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Inevitable
  • Togo
    • Batammariba
      • Mud tower-houses (takienta), Koutammakou region
  • Tunisia
    • Architecture and ritual in the Ghriba synagogue, Tunisia
  • Uganda
    • Baganda
      • Olubugo (Barkcloth)

Works of Art

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  • Place
  • Date
  • Artist
  • Period, Culture, Style
  • Artwork Type
  • Material
  • Technique

Bishop Petros from the Cathedral of Faras

late 10th century

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Magical Text (Spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice)

6th–7th century

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A 5th-century Nubian chest: rethinking artistic centers in late antiquity

4th–6th century C.E.

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The Cairo Geniza: medieval preservation and reuse

c. 11th–19th centuries

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Diversity and power: a late antique Egyptian textile

5th century

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Bust of an African Child

2nd–3rd century C.E.

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Painted portrait of Isis: between empires and icons

2nd century C.E.

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African Red Slip Ware Jug

290–320 C.E.

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Artists

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Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Mosque, 1964, oil on canvas (MoMA) Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Mosque, 1964, oil on canvas (MoMA) © Ibrahim El-Salahi

Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Mosque, 1964, oil on canvas (MoMA) Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Mosque, 1964, oil on canvas (MoMA) © Ibrahim El-Salahi

Abdullah Frères (photography studio)

Jane Alexander

Fagbite Asamu of Idahin

Yto Barrada

Skunder Boghossian

Ngongo ya Chintu

Ernest Cole

Guancho Diarra

Omar Victor Diop

Marlene Dumas

Falola Edun

Melvin Edwards

El Anatsui

Ibrahim El-Salahi

Lalla Essaydi

François-Edmond Fortier

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Periods, Cultures, Styles

Search and See All (101)right arrow icon

Prehistoric

before 2000 B.C.E.

Paleolithic

before 10,000 B.C.E.

Grassfields region

to today

Neolithic

c. 10,000–2000 B.C.E.

Bamum

to today

Fon

to today

We peoples

to today

Nubian

c. 7000 B.C.E.–today

Ancient Egyptian

c. 5000 B.C.E.–395 C.E.

Predynastic

c. 5000–3000 B.C.E.

Bamana

to today

Early Dynastic

c. 3000–2686 B.C.E.

Igbo/Ibo

to today

Old Kingdom

c. 2649–2150 B.C.E.

Ancient Nubian

c. 2500 B.C.E.– 360 C.E.

Middle Kingdom

c. 2030–1640 B.C.E.

San

to today

Second Intermediate Period

c. 1640–1530 B.C.E.

New Kingdom

c. 1550–1070 B.C.E.

Third Intermediate Period

c. 1070–713 B.C.E.

Yoruba

to today

Swahili

to today

Punic

900–146 B.C.E.

Ancient Roman

c. 753 B.C.E.–410 C.E.

Late Period (Ancient Egyptian)

c. 713–332 B.C.E.

Persian (Achaemenid Empire)

c. 550–330 B.C.E.

Ptolemaic period

332–30 B.C.E.

Hellenistic

323–31 B.C.E.

Aksumite

c. 100 B.C.E.–1000 C.E.

Roman Period (Ancient Egyptian)

c. 30 B.C.E.–395 C.E.

Early Roman Empire

c. 27 B.C.E.–117 C.E.

Akan

to today

Asante

to today

Baga

to today

Bamileke

to today

Batammariba

to today

Bangwa

to today

Baule

to today

Bwa

Origins are not well understood—to today

Chokwe

to today

Dan

to today

Dogon

to today

Ejagham

to today

Ewe

to today

Fang

to today

Hemba

to today

Kisi

to today

Kongo

to today

Kota

to today

Koulango

to today

Kuba

to today

Lumbo

to today

Mandinka

to today

Mangbetu

to today

Mende

to today

Merina

to today

Ndebele

to today

Senufo

to today

Shona

to today

Southern Sotho

to today

Xhosa

to today

Vai

to today

Western Ijo

to today

Middle Roman Empire

c. 117–235 C.E.

Early Christian

c. 150–700

Late Roman Empire

c. 235–410 C.E.

Coptic Period

c. 4th–7th century

Medieval

c. 330–1453

Byzantine

c. 330–1453

Early Byzantine

c. 330–843

Luba

c. 5th century to today

Islamic

c. 640–1924

Umayyad

661–750

Abbasid

750–1258

Aghlabid

c. 800–909

Igbo-Ukwu

c. 800–900

Djenné

c. 800–to today

Kingdom of Benin

c. 900–1897

Amazigh (Berber)

c. 900 C.E.–today

Fatimid

909–1171

Maghrebi

c. 1000–today

Ife

c. 1100–1500

Ayyubid

1171–1260

Baganda

13th or 14th century–present

Mali Empire

c. 1226–1670

Fante

1250–today

Mamluk Sultanate

1250–1517

Solomonic dynasty

1270–1974

Ottoman

1298–1924

Lohron

c. 1300–1700

Sapi-Portuguese

c. 1400–1600

Bini-Portuguese

c. 1400–1600

Ga people

before the 15th century–today

Songhai Empire

c. 1430–1591

Yaka

c. 1600 to today

Modernisms

c. 1900–1980

International Style

c. 1920–1980

Surrealism

1922–c. 1950

Apartheid South Africa

1948–94

Late Modernism/Postmodernism

1962–today

Contemporary

1980–today

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Curated Guides to Africa

All Textbook Chapters Syllabi

Textbook Chapter

The world of ancient Egypt

Textbook Chapter

Ancient Egyptian religious life and afterlife

Textbook Chapter

The arts of Africa, c. 18th–20th century

Textbook Chapter

Art, Adornment, and Identity in Africa

Textbook Chapter

The Roman empire in a connected world, 27 B.C.E.–330 C.E.

Textbook Chapter

Framing Islamic art

Textbook Chapter

Continuity and innovation: early Islamic art and architecture of the Umayyads and Abbasids

Textbook Chapter

Building new Romes: The Eastern Romans, Umayyads, and Carolingians

Textbook Chapter

Medieval materiality across the Mediterranean, 900–1500

Textbook Chapter

Islamic art c. 900–1400

Textbook Chapter

Portuguese contacts and exchanges, c. 1400–1800

Textbook Chapter

Responding to the early modern European tradition

Textbook Chapter

Itinerant modernisms: cosmopolitans, exiles, travelers since 1950

Textbook Chapter

Portraiture in the premodern world, 700–1400

Syllabus

Art of the Early Modern Period Syllabus (c. 1400–1800)

Syllabus

Modern Art Syllabus

Syllabus

World Art History Syllabus

Syllabus

Prehistory to the Middle Ages: the Mediterranean Syllabus

Syllabus

AP®︎ Art History

Syllabus

Medieval and Byzantine Art and Architecture Syllabus

Syllabus

Global Contemporary Art Syllabus

Thematic Series

Islamic Art and Architecture

Syllabus

Islamic Art and Architecture Syllabus

Explore other continents

South America

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Oceania

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