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Timeline 594 ■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Rethinking the Basilican
Church 682
Renaissance Humanism 594
Map 22-1 Rome with Renaissance and Baroque monuments 656
Florence 594
THE BIG PICTURE 6 8 3
Venice 621
The Princely Courts 624
23 High Renaissance
Milan 632
and Mannerism in Northern
■ artists on aRT: The Commentarii of Lorenzo Ghiberti 596
Europe and Spain 685
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Linear Perspective 599
■ art and society: Imitation and Emulation in Renaissance FRAMING THE ERA Netherlandish Mores and the
Art 606 Pursuit of Wealth 685
■ art and society: Italian Renaissance Family Chapel Timeline 686
Endowments 617
Northern Europe in the 16th Century 686
■ artists on aRT: Leon Battista Alberti’s On the Art of
Building 620 Germany 686
■ written sources: The Tomb of Doge Pietro The Netherlands 697
Mocenigo 622
■ art and society: Art in the Princely Courts of Renaissance France 702

Italy 625
Spain 705
■ a second opinion: Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation 627
■ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY: Catholic versus Protestant Views
Map 21-1 Renaissance Florence 615 of Salvation 691
■ art and society: Witchcraft and the Macabre 693

■ a second opinion: Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly
Delights 696
■ the patron’s voice: Francis I, Royal Art Patron and

22 Renaissance and Mannerism Collector 703
in Cinquecento Italy 635 Map 23-1 Europe in the early 16th century 688
FRAMING THE ERA Michelangelo, Pope Julius II, THE BIG PICTURE 7 0 9
and the Sistine Chapel 635
Timeline 636
24 The Baroque in Italy
High Renaissance 636
and Spain 711
Mannerism 668
FRAMING THE ERA Mystical Drama in a Baroque
Late Renaissance 676
Chapel 711
■ artists on aRT: Leonardo and Michelangelo on Painting versus
Sculpture 637 Timeline 712
■ materials and techniques: Renaissance Drawings 640 “Baroque” Art and Architecture 712
■ written sources: Giorgio Vasari’s Lives 648 Italy 712
■ the patron’s voice: The Council of Trent 654 Spain and New Spain 729
■ a second opinion: Giorgione’s Tempest 662 ■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Completing Saint Peter’s 714
■ art and society: Women in the Renaissance Art ■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Rethinking the Church Facade 717
World 666
■ written sources: Giovanni Pietro Bellori on Annibale
■ artists on aRT: Palma il Giovane on Titian 667 Carracci and Caravaggio 722
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: How to Impress a Pope 669 ■ artists on aRT: The Letters of Artemisia Gentileschi 725
■ the patron’s voice: Federigo Gonzaga, Giulio Romano, ■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: How to Make a Ceiling
and the Palazzo del Tè 674 Disappear 728
vi Contents
96609_fm_rev02_i-xvi.indd 6 13/08/18 10:53 am

■ the patron’s voice: Velázquez and Philip IV 733 ■ art and society: Joseph Wright of Derby and the Industrial
Revolution 780
■ a second opinion: Diego Veláquez’s Las Meninas 734
■ written sources: Diderot on Chardin and Boucher 782
Map 24-1 Vatican City 713
■ art and society: Vigée Le Brun, Labille-Guiard, and the
THE BIG PICTURE 7 3 7 French Royal Academy 784
■ art and society: Grand Manner Portraiture 786
25 The Baroque in ■ art and society: The Grand Tour and Veduta Painting 788
Northern Europe 739 ■ art and society: The Excavations of Herculaneum and
Pompeii 790
FRAMING THE ERA International Trade and Art ■ written sources: Winckelmann and the History of Classical
Patronage in the Dutch Republic 739 Art 791
Timeline 740 ■ artists on aRT: Jacques-Louis David on Greek Style

and Public Art 792
War and Trade in Northern Europe 740
■ art and society: Hagley Park and English Picturesque
Flanders 741 Gardens 795
Dutch Republic 746 ■ the patron’s voice: Thomas Jefferson, Patron and

Practitioner 797
France 757
England 767 THE BIG PICTURE 7 9 9
■ artists on aRT: Rubens on Consequences of War 743
■ art and society: The Art Market in the Dutch Republic 747
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Frans Hals’s Group Portraits 748

27 Romanticism, Realism,
■ materials and techniques: Rembrandt’s Use of Light and
Photography: Europe and America,
Shade 751 1800 to 1870 801
■ a second opinion: Johannes Vermeer’s Allegory of the Art of
Painting 755 FRAMING THE ERA Napoleon in Jaffa 801
■ art and society: The Sun King’s Palace at Versailles 759 Timeline 802
■ artists on aRT: Poussin’s Notes for a Treatise on Painting 762 Political, Industrial, and Artistic Revolutions 802
Map 25-1 Europe in 1648 after the Peace of Westphalia 740 Art under Napoleon 803
THE BIG PICTURE 7 6 9 Romanticism 808
Realism 822
Architecture 836
26 Rococo to Neoclassicism:
Photography 842
The 18th Century in Europe and
■ the patron’s voice: The Coronation of Napoleon 805
America 771
■ art and society: The Romantic Spirit in Art, Music,
FRAMING THE ERA The Enlightenment, and Literature 813
Angelica Kauffman, and Neoclassicism 771 ■ written sources: Friedrich’s Wanderer above a Sea
of Mist 817
Timeline 772
■ artists on aRT: John Constable on Landscape Painting 818
A Century of Revolutions 772
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Unleashing the Emotive Power
Rococo 772 of Color 819
■ artists on aRT: Thomas Cole on the American

The Enlightenment 778
Landscape 820
“Natural” Art 781 ■ artists on aRT: Gustave Courbet on Realism 823
Neoclassicism 789 ■ materials and techniques: Lithography 826
■ written sources: Femmes Savantes and Salon Culture 773 ■ a second opinion: Edmonia Lewis’s Forever Free 834
Contents vii

■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: What Should a Museum Look Map 28-1 France around 1870 with towns along the Seine 852
Like? 836
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Prefabricated Architecture 841

■ materials and techniques: Daguerreotypes, Calotypes,

and Wet-Plate Photography 842
Map 27-1 The Napoleonic Empire in 1812 802 29 Modernism in Europe,

Map 27-2 Europe around 1850 803 1900 to 1945 887
THE BIG PICTURE 8 4 7 FRAMING THE ERA Picasso Disrupts the Western
Pictorial Tradition 887
Timeline 888
28 Impressionism, Post-
Global Upheaval and Artistic Revolution 888
Impressionism, Symbolism: Europe
and America, 1870 to 1900 849 Fauvism 889
German Expressionism 891
FRAMING THE ERA Impressions of Modern
Life 849 Cubism 895
Timeline 850 Orphism and the Machine Aesthetic 902
Industrialization and Modernism 850 Futurism 904
Impressionism 850 Dada 906
Post-Impressionism 860 Suprematism and Constructivism 910
Symbolism 871 Neue Sachlichkeit 912
Sculpture 876 Surrealism 915
Decorative Arts and Architecture 878 De Stijl 922
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Painting Impressions of Light
Sculpture 923
and Color 851
■ art and society: Academic Salons and Independent Art Architecture 926

Exhibitions 853 ■ artists on aRT: Henri Matisse on Color 890
■ artists on aRT: Renoir on the Art of Painting 856 ■ art and society: Science and Art in the Early
■ a second opinion: Manet at the Folies-Bergère 857 20th Century 893
■ art and society: Japonisme 858 ■ art and society: Gertrude and Leo Stein and the
Avant-Garde 896
■ artists on aRT: Whistler on “Artistic Arrangements” 859
■ art and society: Primitivism and Colonialism 897
■ art and society: Women Impressionists 860
■ artists on aRT: Pablo Picasso on Cubism 899
■ materials and techniques: Pointillism and 19th-Century
Color Theory 863 ■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Delaunay, Orphism, and the
Representation of Modern Life 903
■ artists on aRT: The Letters of Vincent van Gogh 865
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Léger, the Machine Aesthetic,
■ artists on aRT: Gauguin on Where Do We Come From? 867 and the Representation of Modern Life 904
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Making Impressionism Solid ■ artists on aRT: Futurist Manifestos 905
and Enduring 869
■ a second opinion: Hannah Höch’s Dada Photomontage 909
■ written sources: Albert Aurier on Symbolism 870
■ written sources: André Breton’s First Surrealist
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Painting Psychic Life 874 Manifesto 916
■ artists on aRT: Rodin on Movement in Art and ■ art and society: Degenerate Art 918
Photography 876
■ artists on aRT: Piet Mondrian on Neoplasticism 922
■ art and society: The Arts and Crafts Movement 879
■ artists on aRT: Brancusi, Hepworth, and Moore on Abstract
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: The First Skyscrapers 883 Sculpture 924
viii Contents

■ artists on aRT: Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus 928 ■ artists on aRT: Helen Frankenthaler on Color-Field
Painting 968
Map 29-1 Europe at the end of World War I 888
■ artists on aRT: David Smith on Outdoor Sculpture 970
THE BIG PICTURE 9 3 1 ■ artists on aRT: Donald Judd on Sculpture and Industrial
Materials 971
■ art and society: Pop Art and Consumer Culture 974

30 Modernism in the United States
■ artists on aRT: Roy Lichtenstein on Pop Art and Comic
and Mexico, 1900 to 1945 933 Books 976
FRAMING THE ERA Aaron Douglas, Europe, Africa, ■ artists on aRT: James Rosenquist on F-111 978
and America 933 ■ artists on aRT: Chuck Close on Photorealist Portrait
Painting 980
Timeline 934
■ art and society: Robert Frank’s The Americans 982
American Art at the Turn of the Century 934
■ artists on aRT: Judy Chicago on The Dinner Party 984
Painting 934
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Robert Venturi and Postmodernist
Photography and Sculpture 947 Complexity and Contradiction 991
■ artists on aRT: Philip Johnson on Postmodern

Architecture 950 Architecture 992
■ art and society: The Armory Show 935 ■ a second opinion: The Portland Building 993
■ art and society: Art “Matronage” in the United States 938 ■ artists on aRT: Robert Smithson on Spiral Jetty 994
■ art and society: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration of the ■ artists on aRT: Carolee Schneemann on Painting, Performance
Negro 942 Art, and Art History 996
■ a second opinion: Grant Wood’s American Gothic 943 ■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Rethinking “Art”:
■ artists on aRT: Diego Rivera on Art for the People 945 Conceptual Art 998
■ artists on aRT: Alfred Stieglitz on “Straight THE BIG PICTURE 1 0 0 1

Photography” 947
■ the patron’s voice: The Museum of Modern Art as

Collector and Patron 951
32 Contemporary Art
■ artists on aRT: Frank Lloyd Wright on Organic Architecture 953
Worldwide 1003
FRAMING THE ERA Art as Sociopolitical
Message 1003
31 Modernism and Post Timeline 1004
modernism in Europe and America, Art Today 1004

1945 to 1980 957 Personal and Group Identity 1004
FRAMING THE ERA After Modernism: Postmodernist Political and Social Commentary 1013
Architecture 957
Representation and Abstraction 1017
Timeline 958
Electronic and Digital Media 1026
The Aftermath of World War II 958
Installation and Site-Specific Art 1027
Painting, Sculpture, and Photography 958
Architecture 1034
Architecture and Site-Specific Art 987
■ art and society: Public Funding of Controversial Art 1009
Performance and Conceptual Art and New Media 995
■ artists on aRT: Shirin Neshat on Iran after the
■ artists on aRT: Jean Dubuffet on Crude Art 960 Revolution 1012
■ written sources: Greenbergian Formalism 962 ■ artists on aRT: Leon Golub on Mercenaries 1014
■ artists on aRT: Jackson Pollock on Easel and Mural ■ art and society: Damien Hirst’s Wreck of the
Painting 963 Unbelievable 1020
Contents ix

■ materials and techniques: Rethinking the Shape of
Painting 1023 35 Japan, 1333 to 1980 1075
■ art and society: Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial 1031 FRAMING THE ERA Famous Views of Edo 1075
■ a second opinion: Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc 1033 Timeline 1076
■ artists on aRT: Frank Gehry on Architectural Design and
Muromachi 1076
Materials 1037
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Norman Foster, the Gherkin, Momoyama 1079

and Green Architectural Design 1040
Edo 1083
THE BIG PICTURE 1 0 4 1 Meiji and Showa 1088
■ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY: Zen Buddhism 1077
33 South and Southeast Asia, ■ written sources: Sesshu Toyo 1078
1200 to 1980 1043 ■ a second opinion: The Rock Garden of Ryoanji 1079
FRAMING THE ERA Painting at the Mughal ■ art and society: The Japanese Tea Ceremony 1082
Imperial Court 1043 ■ materials and techniques: Japanese Woodblock
Prints 1086
Timeline 1044
Map 35-1 Modern Japan 1076
India 1044
Southeast Asia 1053 THE BIG PICTURE 1 0 9 1
■ the patron’s voice: The Qutb Minar and the Triumph

of Islam 1045 36 Native American Cultures,
■ materials and techniques: Indian Miniature 1300 to 1980 1093
Painting 1047
■ written sources: Abd al-Hamid Lahori on the FRAMING THE ERA The Founding of
Taj Mahal 1049 Tenochtitlán 1093
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Victoria Terminus as Cathedral Timeline 1094
of Modernization 1051
Mesoamerica 1094
Map 33-1 South and Southeast Asia, 1200 to 1980 1044
South America 1099
THE BIG PICTURE 1 0 5 7
North America 1102
■ materials and techniques: Mesoamerican Illustrated
34 China and Korea, Books 1095
1279 to 1980 1059 ■ RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY: Aztec Religion 1097
FRAMING THE ERA The Son of Heaven and the ■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Inka Record-Keeping and the
Khipu 1100
Forbidden City 1059
■ art and society: Gender Roles in Native American Art 1104
Timeline 1060
■ art and society: Kwakwaka’wakw Transformation
China 1060 Masks 1106
Korea 1071 Map 36-1 Mixteca-Puebla and Aztec sites in Mesoamerica 1094
■ materials and techniques: Calligraphy and Inscriptions Map 36-2 Inka sites in Andean South America 1099
on Chinese Paintings 1061
Map 36-3 Later Native American sites in North America 1103
■ materials and techniques: Chinese Porcelain 1063
■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Planning an Unplanned
Garden 1065
■ materials and techniques: Lacquered Wood 1066 37 Oceania before 1980 1113
Map 34-1 China during the Ming dynasty 1060
FRAMING THE ERA Maori Men’s Meeting
THE BIG PICTURE 1 0 7 3 Houses 1113
x Contents

Timeline 1114 Ancestors and Spirits 1133
Island Cultures of the South Pacific 1114 Leadership and Royalty 1136
Australia and Melanesia 1115 Rituals and Masquerades 1141
Micronesia 1121 Costume and Body Art 1146
Polynesia 1123 Contemporary Art 1148
■ art and society: Asmat Headhunting and Bisj Poles 1116 ■ art and society: African Artists and Apprentices 1137
■ art and society: Women’s Roles in Oceania 1122 ■ art and society: Gender Roles in African Art
Production 1141
■ a second opinion: The Moai of Rapa Nui 1123
■ art and society: African Masquerades 1143
■ materials and techniques: Tongan Barkcloth 1124
■ art and society: Mende Women as Maskers 1146
■ art and society: Tattoo in Polynesia 1125
Map 38-1 Africa in the early 21st century 1132
Map 37-1 Oceania 1114

Notes 1150
38 Africa, 1800 to 1980 1131
Glossary 1153
FRAMING THE ERA Honoring Leaders and
Ancestors 1131 Bibliography 1167
Timeline 1132 Credits 1182
Africa, 1800 to 1980 1132 Index 1188
Contents xi

Preface
I take great pleasure in introducing the extensively revised and including hundreds of new images, among them a new series of
expanded 16th edition of Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global superb photos taken by Jonathan Poore exclusively for Art through
History, which, like the 15th edition, is a hybrid art history the Ages during a photographic campaign in England in 2016
textbook—the first, and still the only, introductory survey of the (following similar forays into France, Tuscany, Rome, and Germany
history of art of its kind. This innovative new kind of “Gardner” for the 14th and 15th editions). MindTap also includes custom vid-
retains all of the best features of traditional books on paper while eos made on these occasions at each site by Sharon Adams Poore.
harnessing 21st-century technology to increase by 25% the number This extraordinary proprietary Cengage archive of visual material
of works examined—without increasing the size or weight of the ranges from ancient temples and aqueducts in Rome and France; to
book itself and at only nominal additional cost to students. medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque churches in England, France,
When Helen Gardner published the first edition of Art through Germany, and Italy and 18th-century landscape architecture in
the Ages in 1926, she could not have imagined that nearly a century England; to such postmodern masterpieces as the Pompidou Center
later, instructors all over the world would still be using her textbook and the Louvre Pyramide in Paris, the Neue Staatsgalerie in Stutt-
(available even in a new Chinese edition, the third time this clas- gart, and the Gherkin in London. The 16th edition also features the
sic textbook has been translated into Chinese) in their classrooms. highly acclaimed architectural drawings of John Burge prepared
Indeed, if she were alive today, she would not recognize the book exclusively for Cengage, as well as Google Earth coordinates for all
that, even in its traditional form, long ago became—and remains— buildings and sites and all known provenances of portal objects.
the world’s most widely read introduction to the history of art and Together, these exclusive photographs, videos, and drawings pro-
architecture. I hope that instructors and students alike will agree vide readers with a visual feast unavailable anywhere else.
that this new edition lives up to the venerable Gardner tradition and Once again, scales accompany the photograph of every paint-
even exceeds their high expectations. ing, statue, or other artwork discussed—another innovative feature
The 16th edition follows the 15th in incorporating an innova- of the Gardner text. The scales provide students with a quick and
tive new online component called MindTaptm, which includes, in effective way to visualize how big or small a given artwork is and its
addition to a host of other features (enumerated below), MindTap relative size compared with other objects in the same chapter and
Bonus Images (with zoom capability) and descriptions of more than throughout the book—especially important given that the illus-
300 additional important works of all eras, from prehistory to the trated works vary in size from tiny to colossal.
present and worldwide. The printed and online components of the Also retained in this edition are the Quick-Review Captions
hybrid 16th edition are very closely integrated. For example, each (brief synopses of the most significant aspects of each artwork or
MindTap Bonus Image appears as a thumbnail in the traditional building illustrated) that students have found invaluable when pre-
textbook, with abbreviated caption, to direct readers to MindTap paring for examinations. These extended captions accompany not
for additional content, including an in-depth discussion of each only every image in the printed book but also all the digital images
image. The integration extends also to the maps, index, glossary, in MindTap, where they are also included in a set of interactive
and chapter summaries, which seamlessly merge the printed and electronic flashcards. Each chapter also again ends with the highly
online information. popular full-page feature called The Big Picture, which sets forth
in bullet-point format the most important characteristics of each
period or artistic movement discussed in the chapter. Also retained
Key Features of from the 15th edition are the timelines summarizing the major
artistic and architectural developments during the era treated (again
the 16th Edition in bullet-point format for easy review) and a chapter-opening essay
In this new edition, in addition to revising the text of every chapter called Framing the Era, which discusses a characteristic painting,
to incorporate the latest research and methodological developments sculpture, or building and is illustrated by four photographs.
and dividing the former chapter on European and American art Another pedagogical tool not found in any other introductory
from 1900 to 1945 into two chapters, I have added several important art history textbook is the Before 1300 section that appears at the
features while retaining the basic format and scope of the previous beginning of the second volume of the paperbound version of the
edition. Once again, the hybrid Gardner boasts roughly 1,700 pho- book. Because many students taking the second half of a survey
tographs, plans, and drawings, nearly all in color and reproduced course will not have access to Volume I, I have provided a special
according to the highest standards of clarity and color fidelity, (expanded) set of concise primers on architectural terminology
xii

and construction methods in the ancient and medieval worlds, Acknowledgments
and on mythology and religion—information that is essential for
understanding the history of art after 1300 in both the West and A work as extensive as a global history of art could not be under-
the East. The subjects of these special essays are Greco-Roman taken or completed without the counsel of experts in all areas of
Temple Design and the Classical Orders; Arches and Vaults; Basili- world art. As with previous editions, Cengage has enlisted dozens
can Churches; Central-Plan Churches; the Gods and Goddesses istorians to review every chapter of Art through the Ages in
of art h
of Mount Olympus; the Life of Jesus in Art; Early Christian Saints order to ensure that the text lives up to the Gardner reputation for
and Their Attributes; Buddhism and Buddhist Iconography; and accuracy as well as readability. I take great pleasure in acknowl-
Hinduism and Hindu Iconography. Before 1300 also is included in edging here the important contributions to the 16th edition made
MindTap for all courses. by the following: Bradley Bailey, Saint Louis University; Amy
Feature boxes once again appear throughout the book as well. Bloch, University at Albany; Anne-Marie Bouché, Florida Gulf
These features fall under nine broad categories, one of which is new Coast University; Betty Brownlee, Macomb Community College;
to the 16th edition: Caroline Bruzelius, Duke University; Petra Chu, Seton Hall Uni-
Architectural Basics boxes provide students with a sound foun- versity; Kathy Curnow, Cleveland State University; Paola Demattè,
dation for the understanding of architecture. These discussions are Rhode Island School of Design; Sarah Dillon, Kingsborough City
concise explanations, with drawings and diagrams, of the major College, City University of New York; Eduardo de Jesús Doug-
aspects of design and construction. The information included is essen- las, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Sonja Drimmer,
tial to an understanding of architectural technology and terminology. University of Massachusetts Amherst; Ingrid Furniss, Lafayette
Materials and Techniques essays explain the various media that College; Karen Hope Goodchild, Wofford College; Christopher
artists have employed from prehistoric to modern times. Because Gregg, George Mason University; Melinda Hartwig, Emory Uni-
materials and techniques often influence the character of artworks, versity; Joe Hawkins, Hagley Park; Peter Holliday, California State
these discussions contain essential information on why many mon- University, Long Beach; Craig Houser, City College of New York/
uments appear as they do. City University of New York; Margaret Jackson, University of New
Religion and Mythology boxes introduce students to the princi- Mexico; Mark J. Johnson, Brigham Young University; Lynn Jones,
pal elements of the world’s great religions, past and present, and to Florida State University; Tanja L. Jones, University of Alabama Tus-
the representation of religious and mythological themes in painting caloosa; Nancy Klein, Texas A&M; Peri Klemm, California State
and sculpture of all periods and places. These discussions of belief University, Northridge; Yu Bong Ko, Dominican College; Paul
systems and iconography give readers a richer understanding of Lavy, University of Hawai’i at Manoa; John Listopad, California
some of the greatest artworks ever created. State University, Sacramento; Gary Liu Jr., University of Hawaii at
Art and Society essays treat the historical, social, political, cul- Manoa; Nancy Bea Miller, Montgomery County Community Col-
tural, and religious context of art and architecture. In some instances, lege; Michelle Moseley-Christian, Virginia Tech University; Evan
specific monuments are the basis for a discussion of broader themes. Neely, Pratt Institute; Huiping Pang, University of Iowa; Benjamin
Written Sources boxes present and discuss key historical docu- Paul, Rutgers University; Julie-Anne Plax, University of Arizona;
ments illuminating important monuments of art and architecture Stephanie Porras, Tulane University; Sharon Pruitts, East Carolina
throughout the world. The passages quoted permit voices from the University; Kurt Rahmlow, University of North Texas; Julie Risser,
past to speak directly to the reader, providing vivid and unique Minneapolis College of Art and Design; Robyn Roslak, Univer-
insights into the creation of artworks in all media. sity of Minnesota-Duluth; Susan Elizabeth Ryan, Louisiana State
In the Artists on Art boxes, artists and architects throughout University; Nicholas Sawicki, Lehigh University; Nancy Serwint,
history discuss both their theories and individual works. Arizona State University; Kerri Cox Sullivan, University of Texas,
The Patron’s Voice essays underscore the important roles played Austin; James R. Swensen, Brigham Young University; David S.
by the individuals and groups who paid for the artworks and build- Whitley, University of California, Los Angeles/ASM Affiliates;
ings in determining the character of those monuments. Margaret L. Woodhull, University of Colorado Denver.
Problems and Solutions essays are designed to make students I am especially indebted to the following for creating the
think critically about the decisions that went into the making of instructor and student materials for the 16th edition: Anne
every painting, sculpture, and building from the Old Stone Age to McClanan, Portland State University; Kerri Cox Sullivan, Univer-
the present. These discussions address questions of how and why sity of Texas, Austin.
various forms developed; the problems that painters, sculptors, and I am also happy to have this opportunity to express my grati-
architects confronted; and the solutions they devised to resolve them. tude to the extraordinary group of people at Cengage involved
New to the 16th edition are boxes titled A Second Opinion, in with the editing, production, and distribution of Art through the
which an individual work of art that is the subject of current debate Ages. Some of them I have now worked with on various projects
or has recently been reinterpreted is discussed. These essays under- for two decades and feel privileged to count among my friends.
score for students that the history of art and architecture is not a static The success of the Gardner series in all of its various permuta-
discipline and that scholars are constantly questioning and rethinking tions depends in no small part on the expertise and unflagging
traditional interpretations of paintings, sculptures, and buildings. commitment of these dedicated professionals, especially Van-
Other noteworthy features retained from the 15th edition are essa Manter, senior product manager; Laura Hildebrand, senior
the extensive (updated) bibliography of books in English; a glos- content manager; Lianne Ames, senior content manager; Paula
sary containing definitions of all italicized terms introduced in both Dohnal, learning designer; Ann Hoffman, intellectual property
the printed and online texts; and a complete museum index listing analyst; Betsy Hathaway, senior intellectual property project
all illustrated artworks by their present location. The host of state- manager; Laura Kuhlman, marketing manager; Sarah Cole, senior
of-the-art resources in the 16th edition version of MindTap for Art designer; as well as Sharon Adams Poore, former product man-
through the Ages are enumerated on page xxix). ager for art; Cate Barr, former senior art director; Jillian Borden,
Preface xiii

former senior marketing manager; and Sayaka Kawano, former Pursuit of Wealth.” New A Second Opinion essay “Hieronymus
product assistant. I also express my deep gratitude to the incom- Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights.”
parable group of learning consultants who have passed on to me
24: The Baroque in Italy and Spain. Added Caravaggio’s The
the welcome advice offered by the hundreds of instructors they
Taking of Christ. New Framing the Era essay “Mystical Drama
speak to daily.
in a Baroque Chapel.” New A Second Opinion essay “Diego
It is a special pleasure also to acknowledge my debt to the fol-
Velázquez’s Las Meninas.” New photographs of Bernini’s Ecstasy
lowing out-of-house contributors to the 16th edition: the peerless
of Saint Teresa, Carlo Maderno’s east facade of Saint Peter’s in the
quarterback of the entire production process, Joan Keyes, Dove-
Vatican, and Annibale Carracci’s Loves of the Gods ceiling fresco in
tail Publishing Services; Michele Jones, copy editor extraordinaire;
the Palazzo Farnese in Rome.
Susan Gall, eagle-eyed proofreader; Alisha Webber, text and cover
designer; Lumina Datamatics, photo researchers; Jay and John 25: The Baroque in Northern Europe. New Framing the Era essay
Crowley, Jay’s Publisher Services; Cenveo Publisher Services; and “International Trade and Art Patronage in the Dutch Republic.”
Jonathan Poore and John Burge, for their superb photos and archi- New A Second Opinion essay “Johannes Vermeer’s Allegory of the
tectural drawings. Art of Painting.” New photographs of Hals’s Women Regents of the
I conclude this long (but no doubt incomplete) list of acknowl- Old Men’s Home at Haarlem, Rembrandt’s Night Watch, and Pous-
edgments with an expression of gratitude to my colleagues at Boston sin’s Et in Arcadia Ego.
University and to the thousands of students and hundreds of teach- 26: Rococo to Neoclassicism: The 18th Century in Europe and
ing fellows in my art history courses since I began teaching in 1975. America. Added St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the rotunda
From them I have learned much that has helped determine the form and sham medieval castle at Hagley Park, and the temple of Apollo
and content of Art through the Ages and made it a much better book at Stourhead Park. New Art and Society essay “Hagley Park and
than it otherwise might have been. English Picturesque Gardens.” New photographs of the Salon de
Fred S. Kleiner la Princesse in Paris, the iron bridge at Coalbrookdale, Chiswick
House near London, the Temple of Theseus at Hagley Park, the
lake and Pantheon at Stourhead Park, and the Rotunda and Lawn
of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Chapter-by-Chapter Changes
27: Romanticism, Realism, Photography: Europe and America,
in the 16th Edition 1800 to 1870. Extensive text revisions. Added Smirke’s St. Mary’s
The 16th edition is extensively revised and expanded, as detailed in Bryanston Square in London, Nash’s Marble Arch in London,
below. Instructors will find a very helpful figure number transition and Burton and Turner’s Palm House at Kew Gardens. New Fram-
guide on the online instructor companion site. ing the Era essay “Napoleon in Jaffa.” New A Second Opinion essay
“Edmonia Lewis’s Forever Free.” New photographs of the stained-
Introduction: What Is Art History? Added the head of the portrait
glass windows of the Houses of Parliament in London and of the
of Augustus as pontifex maximus from the Via Labicana, Rome.
exterior of the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris.
14: Late Medieval Italy. New Framing the Era essay “Duccio di
28: Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism: Europe
Buoninsegna.” New A Second Opinion essay “Pietro Cavallini.”
and America, 1870 to 1900. New Framing the Era essay “Impres-
New Problems and Solutions essay “Cityscapes and Landscapes as
sions of Modern Life.” New A Second Opinion essay “Manet at the
Allegories.” Two new photographs of Pietro Cavallini’s Last Judg-
Folies-Bergère.” New photographs of Rodin’s Burghers of Calais,
ment in Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.
the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and Gaudí’s Casa Milá in Barcelona.
20: Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Northern Europe.
29: Modernism in Europe, 1900 to 1945. The chapter in the 15th
Reorganized discussion of artworks with three new chapter sec-
edition on European and American modernism from 1900 to 1945
tions: the French Ducal Courts; Flanders; and France and the Holy
has been divided into two chapters, the first on developments in
Roman Empire. Added Jacques de Baerze’s Retable de Champmol.
Europe and the second on the art and architecture of the same
New A Second Opinion essay “Jan van Eyck’s Giovanni Arnolfini
period in the United States and Mexico. Added André Derain’s
and His Wife.” New photograph of the full Altarpiece of the Holy
The Turning Road, L’Estaque. New A Second Opinion essay “Han-
Sacrament by Dieric Bouts.
nah Höch’s Dada Photomontage.” New timeline and Big Picture.
21: The Renaissance in Quattrocento Italy. New A Second Opin- New photographs of Picasso’s Guitar and Duchamp’s Large Glass.
ion essay “Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation.”
30: Modernism in the United States and Mexico, 1900 to 1945. In
22: Renaissance and Mannerism in Cinquecento Italy. Reor- this new independent chapter on art and architecture in the United
ganization of the chapter to place the discussion of Mannerism States and Mexico from 1900 to 1945, the discussion of American
between the sections on the High and Late Renaissance, and to art has been significantly reorganized and divided by medium:
discuss together all the works of Michelangelo created at different painting, photography, sculpture, and architecture. Added Stuart
phases of his career. Added Sebastiano del Piombo’s Polyphemos. Davis’s Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors—7th Avenue Style. New Fram-
New A Second Opinion essay “Giorgione’s Tempest.” New photo- ing the Era essay “Aaron Douglas, Europe, Africa, and America.”
graphs of Michelangelo’s Bound Slave, the courtyard of the Palazzo New A Second Opinion essay “Grant Wood’s American Gothic.”
Farnese in Rome, the Villa Rotonda at Vicenza, and the Palazzo New timeline and Big Picture. New photographs of Marcel Duch-
del Tè at Mantua (aerial view). amp’s Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2, Alfred Stieglitz’s The
23: High Renaissance and Mannerism in Northern Europe and Steerage, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House in Chicago.
Spain. Added the Gallery of Francis I in the Château of Fontaine- 31: Modernism and Postmodernism in Europe and America,
bleau. New Framing the Era essay “Netherlandish Mores and the 1945 to 1980. Added Mark Rothko’s No. 10, Louise Nevelson’s
xiv Preface

Sky Cathedral, and Robert Frank’s Trolley, New Orleans. New Art the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and the imperial throne room of
and Society essay “Robert Frank’s The Americans.” New A Second the Forbidden City, and of the Garden of the Master of the Fishing
Opinion essay “The Portland Building.” New Artists on Art essay Nets at Suzhou.
“Robert Smithson on Spiral Jetty.”
35: Japan, 1333 to 1980. New Framing the Era essay “Famous Views
32: Contemporary Art Worldwide. Added De Style by Kerry of Edo.” New A Second Opinion essay “The Rock Garden of Ryoanji.”
James Marshall, Subway Graffiti #3 by Faith Ringgold, Big Alagba 36: Native American Cultures, 1300 to 1980. Added a San Ilde-
and Sekibo by Sokari Douglas Camp, Hydra and Kali by Damien fonso jar by María Montoya Martínez in Houston. New Framing
Hirst, and Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo. New Art and Society essay the Era essay “The Founding of Tenochtitlán.” New Materials and
“Damien Hirst’s Wreck of the Unbelievable.” New photographs of Techniques essay “Mesoamerican Illustrated Books.” New pho-
Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the interior and exterior tographs of the Borgia Codex and the Temple of the Sun (Santo
of Norman Foster’s HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong, and Fos- Domingo) at Cuzco.
ter’s Gherkin tower in London.
37: Oceania before 1980. Added a New Ireland tatanua helmet
33: South and Southeast Asia, 1200 to 1980. Expanded discus- mask in Houston and the Maori Runanga meeting house at Wai
sion of Southeast Asia. Added Wat Chai Wattanaram at Ayutthaya tangi. New Art and Society essay “Asmat Headhunting and Bisj
and Pha That Luang at Vientiane. New photographs of the Qutb Poles.” New A Second Opinion essay “The Moai of Rapa Nui.” New
Minar and Alai Darvaza at Delhi, Victoria Terminus at Mumbai, photographs of details of the Turanga wharenui at Poverty Bay.
the Wat Benchamabophit walking Buddha, the Emerald Buddha in
Bangkok, and the Schwedagon Pagoda at Rangoon. 38: Africa, 1800 to 1980. Added a Kota mbulu ngulu in Boston,
a Dan ceremonial spoon in Houston, and a Samburu “Beautiful
34: China and Korea, 1279 to 1980. Revised discussion of several Lady” dance mask in a private collection. New photograph of
artworks and boxed essays. New photographs of the Noon Gate, Samburu masked dancers.
about the author
Fred S. Kleiner
Fred S. Kleiner (Ph.D., Columbia University) has been the author or coauthor of Gardner’s Art through the
Ages beginning with the 10th edition in 1995. He has also published more than a hundred books, articles,
and reviews on Greek and Roman art and architecture, including A History of Roman Art, also published by
Cengage Learning. Both Art through the Ages and the book on Roman art have been awarded Texty prizes as
the outstanding college textbook of the year in the humanities and social sciences, in 2001 and 2007, respec-
tively. Professor Kleiner has taught the art history survey course since 1975, first at the University of Virginia
and, since 1978, at Boston University, where he is currently professor of the history of art and architecture and
classical archaeology and has served as department chair for five terms, most recently from 2005 to 2014.
From 1985 to 1998, he was editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Archaeology.
Long acclaimed for his inspiring lectures and devotion to students, Professor Kleiner won Boston Uni-
versity’s Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching as well as the College Prize for Undergraduate Advising in
the Humanities in 2002, and he is a two-time winner of the Distinguished Teaching Prize in the College of Arts
& Sciences Honors Program. In 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and,
in 2009, in recognition of lifetime achievement in publication and teaching, a Fellow of the Text and Academic
Authors Association.
Also by Fred Kleiner: A History of Roman Art, Second Edition (Cengage Learning 2018; ISBN
9781337279505), winner of the 2007 Texty Prize for a new college textbook in the humanities and social sci-
ences. In this authoritative and lavishly illustrated volume, Professor Kleiner traces the development of Roman
art and architecture from Romulus’s foundation of Rome in the eighth century bce to the death of Constantine
in the fourth century ce, with special chapters devoted to Pompeii and Herculaneum, Ostia, funerary and
provincial art and architecture, and the earliest Christian art, with an introductory chapter on the art and archi-
tecture of the Etruscans and of the Greeks of South Italy and Sicily.
About the Author xv


RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS
AND INSTRUCTORS
MindTap for MindTap Mobile

Art through the Ages Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global History, 16th edition, is
now more accessible than ever with the MindTap Mobile App,
MindTap for Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global History, 16th
empowering students to learn on their terms—anytime, anywhere,
edition, helps students engage with course content and achieve
online or off.
greater comprehension. Highly personalized, fully online, and com-
pletely mobile-optimized, the MindTap learning platform presents •• The MindTap eReader provides convenience as students can
authoritative Cengage content, assignments, and services. read or listen to their eBook on their smartphone, take notes,
and highlight important passages.
Students
•• Flashcards and quizzing cultivate confidence. Students have in-
MindTap guides you through your course via a learning path where stant access to readymade flashcards, study games, and quizzes
you can annotate readings and take quizzes. Concepts are brought to engage key concepts and confidently prepare for exams.
to life with zoomable versions of close to 1,700 images; videos to •• Notifications keep students connected. Due dates are never for-
reinforce concepts and expand knowledge of particular works or art gotten with MindTap Mobile course notifications, which push
trends; numerous study tools, including mobile-optimized image assignment reminders, score updates, and instructor messages
flashcards; a glossary complete with an audio pronunciation guide; directly to students’ smartphones.
and more!
Instructors Lecture Notes & Study Guides

You can easily tailor the presentation of each MindTap course The Lecture Notes & Study Guide for each chapter is a lecture
and integrate activities into a learning management system. The companion that allows students to take notes alongside the images
Resources for Teaching folder in MindTap and the Instructor Com- shown in class. This resource includes reproductions of the images
panion Site hold resources such as instructions on how to use the from the reading, with full captions and space for note-taking either
online test bank; Microsoft PowerPoint slides with high-resolution on a computer or on a printout. It also includes a chapter summary,
images, which can be used as is or customized by importing per- key terms list, and learning objectives checklist.
sonal lecture slides or other material; YouTube playlists organized
by chapter; course learning objectives; and more. Google Earth
Take a virtual tour of art through the ages! Resources for the 16th
edition include Google Earth coordinates for all works, monu-
ments, and sites discussed in the reading, encouraging students to
make geographical connections between places and sites. Instruc-
tors can use these coordinates to start lectures with a virtual journey
to locations all over the globe or take aerial screenshots of important
sites to incorporate into lecture materials.
xvi

before 1300
Students enrolled in the second semester of a yearlong introductory survey of the history of art may
not have access to Volume I. Therefore, Volume II of Art through the Ages: A Global History open with a
special set of concise primers on Greco-Roman and medieval architectural terminology and construc-
tion methods and on Greco-Roman, Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu iconography—information that is
essential for understanding the history of art and architecture after 1300 both in the West and the East.
Contents
■ architectural basics
Greco-Roman Temple Design and the Classical Orders xviii

Arches and Vaults xx
Basilican Churches xxii
Central-Plan Churches xxiv
■ religion and mythology
The Gods and Goddesses of Mount Olympus xxv

The Life of Jesus in Art xxvi
Early Christian Saints and Their Attributes xxviii
Buddhism and Buddhist Iconography xxx
Hinduism and Hindu Iconography xxxi
xvii
96609_Before 1300_rev02_xvii-xxxi.indd 17 25/07/18 5:38 pm

Architectural Basics Before 1300
architectural basics
Greco-Roman Temple Design Romans also built round temples (called tholos temples), a build-
and the Classical Orders ing type that also had a long afterlife in Western architecture.
■■ Classical orders The Greeks developed two basic architectural
The gable-roofed columnar stone temples of the Greeks and Romans orders, or design systems: the Doric and the Ionic. The forms of
have had more influence on the later history of architecture in the West- the columns and entablature (superstructure) generally differentiate
ern world than any other building type ever devised. Many of the ele- the orders. Classical columns have two or three parts, depending
ments of classical temple architecture are present in buildings from the on the order: the shaft, which is usually marked with vertical chan-
Renaissance to the present day. nels (flutes); the capital; and, in the Ionic order, the base. The Doric
The basic design principles of Greek and Roman temples and the capital consists of a round echinus beneath a square abacus
most important components of the classical orders can be summarized block. Spiral volutes constitute the distinctive feature of the Ionic
as follows. capital. Classical entablatures have three parts: the architrave,
the frieze, and the triangular pediment of the gabled roof, framed
■■ Temple design The core of a Greco-Roman temple was the cella,
by the cornice. In the Doric order, the frieze is subdivided into tri-
a room with no windows that usually housed the statue of the
glyphs and metopes, whereas in the Ionic, the frieze is left open.
god or goddess to whom the shrine was dedicated. Generally,
only the priests, priestesses, and chosen few would enter the The Corinthian capital, a later Greek invention very popular in Roman
cella. Worshipers gathered in front of the building, where sacrifices times, is more ornate than either the Doric or Ionic. It consists of a double
occurred at open-air altars. In most Greek temples, for example, row of acanthus leaves, from which tendrils and flowers emerge. Although
the temple erected in honor of Hera or Apollo at Paestum, a this capital often is cited as the distinguishing element of the Corinthian
colonnade was erected all around the cella to form a peristyle. order, in strict terms no Corinthian order exists. Architects simply substi-
By contrast, Roman temples, for example, the Temple of Por- tuted the new capital type for the volute capital in the Ionic order, as in the
tunus in Rome, usually have freestanding columns only in a porch fourth-century bce tholos temple at Epidaurus in Greece.
at the front of the building. Sometimes, as in the Portunus temple, Sculpture played a major role on the exterior of classical temples,
engaged (attached) half-columns adorn three sides of the cella to partly to embellish the deity’s shrine and partly to tell something about
give the building the appearance of a peripteral temple. Architec- the deity to those gathered outside. Sculptural ornament was concen-
tural historians call this a pseudoperipteral design. The Greeks and trated on the upper part of the building, in the pediment and frieze.
DORIC ORDER IONIC ORDER
Raking cornice Raking cornice

Pediment Pediment
Cornice
Cornice
Entablature
Frieze
Entablature
Frieze
Architrave
Architrave
Capital
Capital
Column
Shaft
Column
Shaft
Base
Stylobate Stylobate
Doric and Ionic orders
xviii

Before 1300
Greek Doric peripteral temple (Temple of Hera or Apollo, Paestum, Italy, ca. 460 bce)
Architectural Basics
Roman Ionic pseudoperipteral temple Corinthian capital

(Temple of Portunus, Rome, Italy, ca. 75 bce) (Tholos temple, Epidaurus, Greece, ca. 350 bce)
xix

Before 1300
architectural basics
Arches and Vaults series of groin vaults covers an interior hall, the open lateral
arches of the vaults function as windows admitting light to the
Although earlier architects used both arches and vaults, the Romans building.
employed them more extensively and effectively than any other ancient ■■ Dome The hemispherical dome may be described as a round
civilization. The Roman forms became staples of architectural design arch rotated around the full circumference of a circle, usually resting
from the Middle Ages until today. on a cylindrical drum. The Romans normally constructed domes
using concrete, a mix of lime mortar, volcanic sand, water, and
■■ Arch The arch is one of several ways of spanning a passageway.
small stones, instead of with large stone blocks. Concrete dries to
The Romans preferred it to the post-and-lintel (column-and-archi-
form a solid mass of great strength, which enabled the Romans to
trave) system used in the Greek orders. Builders construct arches
puncture the apex of a concrete dome with an oculus (eye), so that
using wedge-shaped stone blocks called voussoirs. The central
much-needed light could reach the interior of the building.
voussoir is the arch’s keystone.
■■ Barrel vault Also called the tunnel vault, the barrel vault is an Barrel vaults, as noted, resemble tunnels, and groin vaults are usu-
extension of a simple arch, creating a semicylindrical ceiling over ally found in a series covering a similar longitudinally oriented interior
parallel walls. space. Domes, in contrast, crown centrally planned buildings, so named
■■ Groin vault The groin vault, or cross vault, is formed by the inter- because the structure’s parts are of equal or almost equal dimensions
section at right angles of two barrel vaults of equal size. When a around the center.
Arch Barrel vault

Groin vault Hemispherical dome with oculus
x x

Before 1300
Roman arch (Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, ca. 81) Roman hall with groin vaults (Baths of Diocletian, now
Santa Maria degli Angeli, Rome, Italy, ca. 298–306)
Medieval barrel-vaulted church

(Saint-Savin, Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, France, ca. 1100) Roman dome with oculus (Pantheon, Rome, Italy, 118–125)
x xi

Before 1300
Basilican Churches
Gothic architects frequently extended the aisles around the apse to
Church design during the Middle Ages set the stage for ecclesiastical form an ambulatory, onto which opened radiating chapels housing sacred
architecture from the Renaissance to the present. Both the longitudi- relics. Groin vaults formed the ceiling of the nave, aisles, ambulatory,
nal- and central-plan building types of antiquity had a long postclassical and transept alike, replacing the timber roof of the typical Early Christian
history. basilica. These vaults rested on diagonal and transverse ribs in the form
In Western Christendom, the typical medieval church had a of pointed arches. On the exterior, flying buttresses held the nave vaults
basilican plan, which evolved from the Roman columnar hall, or basilica. in place. These masonry struts transferred the thrust of the nave vaults
The great European cathedrals of the Gothic age, which were the imme- across the roofs of the aisles to tall piers frequently capped by pointed
diate predecessors of the churches of the Renaissance and Baroque ornamental pinnacles. This structural system made it possible to open up
eras, shared many elements with the earliest basilican churches con- the walls above the nave arcade with huge stained-glass windows in the
structed during the fourth century, including a wide central nave flanked nave clerestory.
by aisles and ending in an apse. Some basilican churches also have In the later Middle Ages, especially in the great cathedrals of the
a transept, an area perpendicular to the nave. The nave and transept Gothic age, church facades featured extensive sculptural ornamenta-
intersect at the crossing. Gothic churches, however, have many addition, primarily in the portals beneath the stained-glass rose windows (cir-
tional features. The key components of Gothic design are labeled in the cular windows with tracery resembling floral petals). The major sculpted
drawing of a typical French Gothic cathedral, which can be compared to areas were the tympanum above the doorway (akin to a Greco-Roman
the interior view of Amiens Cathedral and the plan of Chartres Cathedral. temple pediment), the trumeau (central post), and the jambs.
Cutaway view of a typical French Gothic cathedral Nave of Amiens Cathedral, France, begun 1220
(1) pinnacle, (2) flying buttress, (3) vaulting web, (4) diagonal rib,
(5) transverse rib, (6) springing, (7) clerestory, (8) oculus, (9) lancet,
(10) triforium, (11) nave arcade, (12) compound pier with responds
xxii

Before 1300
Radiating chapels
Ambulatory Ambulatory
Apse Nave
Aisles Aisles
Transept Transept
Transept Crossing Transept

portals portals
Nave
Aisle
Aisle
Facade portals
Plan of Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France,

rebuilt after 1194
West facade of Amiens Cathedral, Amiens, France, begun 1220
Voussoirs Voussoirs
Archivolts
Tympanum
Lintel
Trumeau
Jambs Jambs
Diagram of medieval portal sculpture Central portal, west facade, Chartres Cathedral, ca. 1145–1155
x xiii

Architectural Basics Before 1300
Central-Plan Churches
The pendentives join to form a ring and four arches whose planes bound
The domed central plan of classical antiquity dominated the architecture a square. The first use of pendentives on a grand scale occurred in the
of the Byzantine Empire but with important modifications. Because the sixth-century church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople.
dome covered the crossing of a Byzantine church, architects had to The interiors of Byzantine churches differed from those of basilican
find a way to erect domes on square bases instead of on the circular churches in the West not only in plan and the use of domes but also in
bases (cylindrical drums) of Roman buildings. The solution was penden- the manner in which they were adorned. The original mosaic decoration
tive construction in which the dome rests on what is in effect a second, of Hagia Sophia is lost, but at San Marco (Saint Mark’s) in Venice, some
larger dome. The top portion and four segments around the rim of the 40,000 square feet of mosaics cover all the walls, arches, vaults, and
larger dome are omitted, creating four curved triangles, or pendentives. domes.
Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey, 532–537 Saint Mark’s, Venice, Italy, begun 1063
Dome on pendentives
xxiv

Before 1300 Religion and Mythology
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY
The Gods and Goddesses ■■ Athena (Minerva) Goddess of wisdom and warfare, Athena was
of Mount Olympus a virgin born from the head of her father, Zeus.
■■ Hephaistos (Vulcan) God of fire and of metalworking, Hephaistos
The chief deities of the Greeks ruled the world from their home on Mount was the son of Zeus and Hera. Born lame and, uncharacteristically
Olympus, Greece’s highest peak. They figure prominently not only in for a god, ugly, he married Aphrodite, who was unfaithful to him.
Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art but also in art from the Renaissance ■■ Apollo (Apollo) God of light and music and son of Zeus, the
to the present. young, beautiful Apollo was an expert archer, sometimes identified
The 12 Olympian gods (and their Roman equivalents) were: with the sun (Helios/Sol).
■■ Artemis (Diana) Sister of Apollo, Artemis was goddess of the hunt.
■■ Zeus (Jupiter) King of the gods, Zeus ruled the sky and allotted
She was occasionally equated with the moon (Selene/Luna).
the sea to his brother Poseidon and the Underworld to his other ■■ Aphrodite (Venus) Daughter of Zeus and a nymph (goddess of
brother, Hades. His weapon was the thunderbolt. Jupiter was also
springs and woods), Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty.
the chief god of the Romans. ■■ Hermes (Mercury) Son of Zeus and another nymph, Hermes
■■ Hera (Juno) Wife and sister of Zeus, Hera was the goddess of was the fleet-footed messenger of the gods and possessed
marriage. winged sandals. He carried the caduceus, a magical herald’s rod.
■■ Poseidon (Neptune) Poseidon was lord of the sea. He controlled
waves, storms, and earthquakes with his three-pronged pitchfork Other important Greek gods and goddesses were:
(trident). ■■ Hades (Pluto) Lord of the Underworld and god of the dead.
■■ Hestia (Vesta) Sister of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hera, Hestia was Although the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, Hades never resided
goddess of the hearth. on Mount Olympus.
■■ Demeter (Ceres) Third sister of Zeus, Demeter was the goddess ■■ Dionysos (Bacchus) God of wine, another of Zeus’s sons.
of grain and agriculture. ■■ Eros (Amor or Cupid) The winged child-god of love, son of
■■ Ares (Mars) God of war, Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera and Aphrodite and Ares.
the lover of Aphrodite. His Roman counterpart, Mars, was the ■■ Asklepios (Aesculapius) God of healing, son of Apollo. His ser-
father of the twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. pent-entwined staff is the emblem of modern medicine.
Hermes and infant Dionysos,

Athena, by Phidias, Apollo, from Olympia, Aphrodite, by Praxiteles, by the Phiale Painter,
ca. 438 bce ca. 470–456 bce ca. 350–340 bce ca. 440–435 bce
x xv

Religion and Mythology Before 1300
religion and mythology
The Life of Jesus in Art ■■ Massacre of the Innocents and Flight into Egypt King Herod,
fearful that a rival king has been born, orders the massacre of all
Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God, the Messiah infants, but the holy family escapes to Egypt.
(Savior, Christ) of the Jews prophesied in Hebrew scripture. His life—his ■■ Dispute in the Temple Joseph and Mary travel to Jerusalem for
miraculous birth from the womb of a virgin mother, his preaching and the feast of Passover. Jesus, only a boy, debates the astonished
miracle working, his execution by the Romans and subsequent ascent Jewish scholars in the temple, foretelling his ministry.
to Heaven—has been the subject of countless artworks from Roman
times through the present day. Public Ministry
The public-ministry cycle comprises the teachings of Jesus and the
Incarnation and Childhood miracles he performed.
The first “cycle” of the life of Jesus consists of the events of his concep-
■■ Baptism Jesus’s public ministry begins with his baptism at age
tion (incarnation), birth, infancy, and childhood.
30 by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. God’s voice is heard
■■ Annunciation to Mary The archangel Gabriel announces to the proclaiming Jesus as his son.
Virgin Mary that she will miraculously conceive and give birth to ■■ Calling of Matthew Jesus summons Matthew, a tax collector,
God’s son, Jesus. to follow him, and Matthew becomes one of his 12 disciples, or
■■ Visitation The pregnant Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is apostles (from the Greek for “messenger”).
pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth is the first to recognize ■■ Miracles Jesus performs many miracles, revealing his divine
that the baby Mary is bearing is the Son of God. nature. These include acts of healing and raising the dead, turning
■■ Nativity, Annunciation to the Shepherds, and Adoration of the water into wine, walking on water and calming storms, and creat-
Shepherds Jesus is born at night in Bethlehem and placed in a ing wondrous quantities of food.
basket. Mary and her husband, Joseph, marvel at the newborn, ■■ Delivery of the Keys to Peter Jesus chooses the fisherman
while an angel announces the birth of the Savior to shepherds in Peter (whose name means “rock”) as his successor. He declares
the field, who rush to adore the infant Jesus. that Peter is the rock on which his church will be built and sym-
■■ Adoration of the Magi A bright star alerts three wise men (magi) bolically delivers to Peter the keys to the kingdom of Heaven.
in the East that the King of the Jews has been born. They travel ■■ Transfiguration Jesus scales a mountain and, in the presence
12 days to present precious gifts to the infant Jesus. of Peter and two other disciples, is transformed into radiant light.
■■ Presentation in the Temple In accordance with Jewish tradition, God, speaking from a cloud, discloses that Jesus is his son.
Mary and Joseph bring their firstborn son to the temple in Jerusa- ■■ Cleansing of the Temple Jesus returns to Jerusalem, where he
lem, where the aged Simeon recognizes Jesus as the prophesied finds money changers and merchants conducting business in the
savior of humankind. temple. He rebukes them and drives them out.
Miracle of Loaves and Fishes, Sant’Apollinare Nuovo,

Annunciation, by Jean Pucelle, ca. 1325–1328 Ravenna, Italy, ca. 504
xxvi

Passion from Jerusalem to Mount Calvary. Soldiers erect the cross and nail
The passion (Latin passio, “suffering”) cycle includes the events leading Jesus’s hands and feet to it. Jesus’s mother, John the Evangelist,
to Jesus’s trial, death, resurrection, and ascent to Heaven. and Mary Magdalene mourn at the foot of the cross, while the
soldiers torment Jesus. One of them stabs Jesus in the side with a
■■ Entry into Jerusalem On the Sunday before his Crucifixion spear. After suffering great pain, Jesus dies on Good Friday.
(Palm Sunday), Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. ■■ Deposition, Lamentation, and Entombment Two disciples,
■■ Last Supper In Jerusalem, Jesus celebrates Passover with his Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, remove Jesus’s body from
disciples. During this last supper, Jesus foretells his imminent the cross (Deposition) and take him to his tomb. Joseph, Nicode-
betrayal, arrest, and death and invites the disciples to remember mus, the Virgin Mary, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene
him when they eat bread (symbol of his body) and drink wine (his mourn over the dead Jesus (Lamentation). (When in art the iso-
blood). This ritual became the celebration of Mass (Eucharist). lated figure of the Virgin Mary cradles her dead son in her lap, it
■■ Agony in the Garden Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives in the is called a Pietà—Italian for “pity.”) Then his followers lower Jesus
Garden of Gethsemane, where he struggles to overcome his into a sarcophagus in the tomb (Entombment).
human fear of death by praying for divine strength. ■■ Resurrection and Three Marys at the Tomb On the third day
■■ Betrayal and Arrest The disciple Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus to (Easter Sunday), Christ rises from the dead and leaves the tomb.
the Jewish authorities for 30 silver coins. Judas identifies Jesus to The Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James,
the soldiers by kissing him, and Jesus is arrested. visit the tomb but find it empty. An angel informs them that Jesus
■■ Trials of Jesus The soldiers bring Jesus before Caiaphas, the has been resurrected.
Jewish high priest, who interrogates Jesus about his claim to be ■■ Noli Me Tangere, Supper at Emmaus, and Doubting of Thomas
the Messiah. Jesus is then brought before the Roman governor During the 40 days between Christ’s Resurrection and his ascent
of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, on the charge of treason because he to Heaven, he appears on several occasions to his followers.
had proclaimed himself king of the Jews. Pilate asks the crowd to Christ warns Mary Magdalene, weeping at his tomb, with the
choose between freeing Jesus or Barabbas, a murderer. The peo- words “Don’t touch me” (Noli me tangere in Latin). At Emmaus
ple choose Barabbas, and the judge condemns Jesus to death. he eats supper with two astonished disciples. Later, Christ invites
■■ Flagellation The Roman soldiers who hold Jesus captive whip Thomas, who cannot believe Christ has risen, to touch the wound
(flagellate) him and mock him by dressing him as king of the Jews in his side inflicted at his Crucifixion.
and placing a crown of thorns on his head. ■■ Ascension On the 40th day, on the Mount of Olives, with his
■■ Carrying of the Cross, Raising of the Cross, and Crucifixion The mother and apostles as witnesses, Christ gloriously ascends to
Romans force Jesus to carry the cross on which he will be crucified Heaven in a cloud.
Crucifixion, ivory plaque, Italy, early fifth century Ascension of Christ, Rabbula Gospels, 586
x xvii

Early Christian Saints ■■ Elizabeth A cousin of Anne, Elizabeth was also an older barren
and Their Attributes woman. The angel Gabriel announced to her husband, the priest
Zacharias, that she would give birth to a son named John. Six
A distinctive feature of Christianity is the veneration accorded to months later, Gabriel informed Mary that she would become the
saints (from the Latin word for “holy”—sanctus), a practice dating to mother of the son of God (Annunciation), whereupon Mary visited
the second century. Most of the earliest Christian saints were martyrs Elizabeth (Visitation), and in Elizabeth’s womb the future John the
who died for their faith at the hands of the Roman authorities, often Baptist leaped for joy at the approach of the Mother of God.
after suffering cruel torture. During the first millennium of the Church, ■■ Joseph Although a modest craftsman, Joseph was a descendant
the designation of sainthood, or canonization, was an informal process,
of King David. An elderly widower, he was chosen among several
but in the late 12th century, Pope Alexander III (r. 1159–1181) ruled that
suitors to wed the much younger Mary when his staff miraculously
only the papacy could designate individuals as saints, and only after a
blossomed. Joseph’s principal attributes are the flowering staff
protracted review of the life, character, deeds, and miracles of the per-
and carpentry tools.
son under consideration. A preliminary stage is beatification, the official
determination that a deceased individual is a beatus (blessed person). ■■ John the Baptist Elizabeth’s son, John, became a preacher who
In Christian art, saints almost always have halos around their heads. promoted baptism as a means of cleansing Jews of their sins in prep-
To distinguish individual saints, artists commonly depicted them with one aration for the Messiah. John most often appears in art as a bearded
or more characteristic attributes—often the means of their martyrdom, hermit baptizing a much younger Jesus in the Jordan River, even
although saintly attributes take a wide variety of forms. though John was only six months older. His attribute is a lamb.
The most important saints during the early centuries of Christianity
were contemporaries of Jesus. They may be classified in three general
APOSTLES
categories.
During the course of his ministry, Jesus called 12 men to be his apostles,
FAMILY OF JESUS AND MARY or messengers, to spread the news of the coming of the son of God.
■■ Anne The parents of the Virgin Mary were Anne and Joachim, All 12 apostles were present at the Last Supper. After Judas’s betrayal
a childless couple after 20 years of marriage. Angels separately and suicide, the remaining 11 witnessed Jesus’s Ascension and chose
announced to them that Anne would give birth. another follower of Jesus to replace Judas. At the Pentecost, the Holy
Christ between Saints Peter and Paul,

John the Baptist baptizing Jesus, Liège, Belgium, 1118 Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, Rome, ca. 359
xxviii

Spirit assigned the 12 apostles the mission of spreading the Gospel OTHER EARLY SAINTS
throughout the world. All but John the Evangelist eventually suffered Several other saints who died before Constantine ended the per -
martyrdom. Four of the apostles figure prominently in the history of art. secution of Christians have also frequently been the subjects of artworks:
■■ Peter The “prince of apostles,” Peter was a fisherman whom ■■ Paul Born a Jew named Saul, Paul fervently opposed Christian
Jesus designated as the rock on which he would found his teaching until Christ spoke to him in a blinding burst of light. Paul
Church. The Savior presented the apostle with the keys to the became the “Apostle to the Gentiles,” preaching the Gospel to
kingdom of Heaven. Peter was the first bishop of Rome and the non-Jews as well as Jews. His Epistles are the foundation of
head of the long line of popes. He was crucified upside down Christian theology. In Early Christian art, he holds a scroll and often
because he insisted that he was unworthy to die as Jesus did. appears with Peter flanking Christ, although, unlike the original
Peter’s chief attributes are the keys. apostles, Paul never met Jesus. In later representations he may
■■ John the Evangelist Another fisherman, John was the youngest hold the sword of his martyrdom.
apostle and “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” He was one of two ■■ Mark One of the two evangelists who were not apostles, Mark ac-
apostles who became evangelists—those who recorded Jesus’s companied Paul on his earliest missionary journey and became the first
life in the Gospels. John also wrote the Book of Revelation. His bishop of Alexandria, where he was martyred by being dragged with
attribute is an eagle. a rope around his neck. The Venetians acquired Mark’s remains in
■■ Matthew The second evangelist among the apostles, Matthew 828. The saint’s attribute—a lion—is the emblem of Venice to this day.
was a Jewish tax collector. Different accounts say that he was ■■ Luke A Gentile physician in addition to being a Gospel author,
either stabbed to death or beheaded while saying Mass. Matthew Luke painted a portrait of Mary and the infant Jesus, and conse-
appears most frequently in art as a seated robed figure writing his quently became the patron saint of artists as well as doctors.
Gospel. His attribute is a winged man. His attribute is an ox.
■■ James The brother of John the Evangelist and also a fisher- ■■ Mary Magdalene Born in Magdala on the Sea of Galilee, Mary
man, James was the first apostle to be martyred—by beheading. Magdalene washed Jesus’s feet with her tears and dried them
According to tradition, before his martyrdom he preached the with her hair. She was the first to discover Christ’s empty tomb
Gospel in Spain. James’s attribute is a scallop shell, the emblem and to encounter the resurrected Savior. Mary’s major attribute
of pilgrims to his shrine at Santiago de Compostela. is her long hair.
Mark, with his lion, writing his Gospel, Corbie Gospels, ca. 1120 Mary Magdalene and the resurrected Christ, Rabbula Gospels, 586
x xix

Buddhism and Buddhist Iconography sect, especially popular in East Asia, venerates the Amitabha Buddha
(Amida in Japanese), the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life. The devotees
The Buddha (Enlightened One) was born around 563 bce as Prince Sid- of this Buddha hope to be reborn in the Pure Land Paradise of the West,
dhartha Gautama. When he was 29, he renounced his opulent life and where the Amitabha resides and can grant them salvation.
became a wandering ascetic searching for knowledge through medita- The earliest (first century ce) known depictions of the Buddha in
tion. Six years later, he achieved complete enlightenment, or buddhahood, human form show him as a robed monk. Artists distinguished the Enlight-
while meditating beneath a pipal tree (the Bodhi tree) at Bodh Gaya (place ened One from monks and bodhisattvas by lakshanas, body attributes
of enlightenment) in eastern India. The Buddha preached his first sermon indicating the Buddha’s suprahuman nature. These distinguishing marks
in the Deer Park at Sarnath. There he set into motion the Wheel (chakra) include an urna, or curl of hair between the eyebrows; an ushnisha, or
of the Law (dharma) and expounded the Four Noble Truths: (1) life is suf- cranial bump; and, less frequently, palms of hands and soles of feet
fering; (2) the cause of suffering is desire; (3) one can overcome and extin- imprinted with a wheel. The Buddha is also recognizable by his elongated
guish desire; (4) the way to conquer desire and end suffering is to follow ears, the result of wearing heavy royal jewelry in his youth.
the Buddha’s Eightfold Path of right understanding, right thought, right Representations of the Buddha also feature a repertory of mudras,
speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and or hand gestures. These include the dhyana (meditation) mudra, with
right concentration. The Buddha’s path leads to nirvana, the cessation of the right hand over the left, palms upward; the bhumisparsha (earth-
the endless cycle of painful life, death, and rebirth. The Buddha continued touching) mudra, right hand down reaching to the ground, calling the
to preach until his death at age 80 at Kushinagara. earth to witness the Buddha’s enlightenment; the dharmachakra (Wheel
The earliest form of Buddhism is called Theravada (Path of the of the Law, or teaching) mudra, a two-handed gesture with right thumb
Elders) Buddhism. The second major school of Buddhist thought, and index finger forming a circle; and the abhaya (do not fear) mudra,
Mahayana (Great Path) Buddhism, emerged around the beginning of right hand up, palm outward, a gesture of protection or blessing.
the Christian era. Mahayana Buddhists refer to Theravada Buddhism Episodes from the Buddha’s life are among the most popular
as Hinayana (Lesser Path) Buddhism and believe in a larger goal than subjects in all Buddhist artistic traditions. Four of the most important
nirvana for an individual—namely, buddhahood for all. Mahayana Bud- events are his birth at Lumbini from the side of his mother; his achieve-
dhists also revere bodhisattvas (Buddhas-to-be), exemplars of compas- ment of buddhahood while meditating beneath the Bodhi tree; his
sion who restrain themselves at the threshold of nirvana to aid others in first sermon at Sarnath; and his attainment of nirvana when he died
earning merit and achieving buddhahood. A third important Buddhist (parinirvana) at Kushinagara.
a b
Life and death of

the Buddha, from
Gandhara, second
century. (a) Birth at
Lumbini, (b) enlight-
enment at Bodh Gaya,
(c) first sermon at
Sarnath, (d) death
at Kushinagara
(parinirvana)
c d
x x x

religion and mythology
Hinduism and Hindu Iconography

and matted locks piled atop his head, crowned by a crescent
Unlike Buddhism (and Christianity, Islam, and other religions), Hindu- moon. Sometimes he wears a serpent scarf and has a third eye on
ism recognizes no founder or great prophet. Hinduism also has no his forehead (the emblem of his all-seeing nature). Shiva rides the
simple definition, but means “the religion of the Indians.” The practices bull Nandi and often carries a trident.
and beliefs of Hindus vary tremendously, but ritual sacrifice is central to ■■ Vishnu is the Preserver of the Universe. Artists frequently portray
Hinduism. The goal of sacrifice is to please a deity in order to achieve him with four arms holding various attributes, including a conch-
release (moksha, liberation) from the endless cycle of birth, death, and shell trumpet and discus, sometimes sleeping on the serpent
rebirth (samsara) and become one with the universal spirit. Ananta floating on the waters of the cosmic sea as he dreams the
Not only is Hinduism a religion of many gods, but the Hindu deities universe into reality. When the evil forces in the world become too
also have various natures and take many forms. This multiplicity sug- strong, he descends to earth to restore balance and assumes dif-
gests the all-pervasive nature of the Hindu gods. The three most impor- ferent forms (avatars, or incarnations), including a boar, fish, and
tant deities are the gods Shiva and Vishnu and the goddess Devi. Each tortoise, as well as Krishna, the divine lover, and even the Buddha
of the three major sects of Hinduism today considers one of these three himself.
to be supreme—Shiva in Shaivism, Vishnu in Vaishnavism, and Devi in
■■ Devi is the Great Goddess who takes many forms and has many
Shaktism. (Shakti is the female creative force.)
names. Hindus worship her alone or as a consort of male gods
■■ Shiva is the Destroyer, but, consistent with the multiplicity of (Parvati or Uma, wife of Shiva; Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu), as well
Hindu belief, he is also a regenerative force and, in the latter role, as Radha, lover of Krishna. She has both benign and horrific
can be represented in the form of a linga (a phallus or cosmic pil- forms. She creates and destroys. In one manifestation, she is
lar). When Shiva appears in human form in Hindu art, he frequently Durga, a multiarmed goddess who often rides a lion. Her son is
has multiple limbs and heads, signs of his suprahuman nature, the elephant-headed Ganesha.
Dancing Shiva with Ganesha, Badami, India, Vishnu Asleep on the Serpent Ananta, Deogarh, India,
late sixth century early sixth century
x x xi

 I-1a Art historians seek to understand not only why artworks
appear as they do but also why those works exist at all. Who paid
this African artist to make this altar? Can the figures represented
provide the answer?
1 in.
I-1 Altar to the Hand (ikegobo), from Benin, Nigeria,

ca. 1735–1750. Bronze, 19 5 21 0 high. British Museum,
London (gift of Sir William Ingram).
 I-1b What tools and techniques did this sculptor employ to transform molten
bronze into this altar representing a Benin king and his attendants projecting in
high relief from the background plane?
 I-1c At the bottom of the altar is a band

with hands and other symbols, but no art-
ist’s signature or date. How can art historians
determine when an unlabeled work such as
this one was made and by and for whom?
30702_intro_rev03_xxxii-013.indd 32 12/06/18 12:38 pm

introduction
WHAT IS ART HISTORY?

What is art history? Except when referring to the modern academic discipline, people do not often
juxtapose the words art and history. They tend to think of history as the record and interpretation of
past human events, particularly social and political events. By contrast, most think of art, quite cor-
rectly, as part of the present—as something people can see and touch. Of course, people cannot see or
touch history’s vanished human events, but a visible, tangible artwork is a kind of persisting event. One
or more artists made it at a certain time and in a specific place, even if no one now knows who, when,
where, or why. Although created in the past, an artwork continues to exist in the present, long surviv-
ing its times. The earliest known paintings and sculptures were created almost 40,000 years ago, but
they can be viewed today, often in glass cases in museums built only during the past few years.
Modern museum visitors can admire these objects from the remote past and countless others pro-
duced over the millennia—whether a large painting on canvas by a 17th-century French artist (fig. I-12),
a wood portrait from an ancient Egyptian tomb (fig. I-15), an illustrated book by a medieval German
monk (fig. I-8), or an 18th-century bronze altar glorifying an African king (fig. I-1)—without any
knowledge of the circumstances leading to the creation of those works. The beauty or sheer size of an
object can impress people, the artist’s virtuosity in the handling of ordinary or costly materials can
dazzle them, or the subject depicted can move them emotionally. Viewers can react to what they see,
interpret the work in the light of their own experience, and judge it a success or a failure. These are all
valid aesthetic responses. (Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that addresses the nature of beauty,
especially in art.) But the enjoyment and appreciation of artworks in museum settings are relatively
recent phenomena, as is the creation of artworks solely for museum-going audiences to view.
Today, it is common for artists to work in private studios and to create paintings, sculptures, and
other objects to be offered for sale by commercial art galleries. This is what American artist Clyfford
Still (1904–1980) did when he created his series of paintings (fig. I-2) of pure color titled simply with
the year of their creation. Usually, someone whom the artist has never met will purchase the artwork
and display it in a setting that the artist has never seen. This practice is not a new phenomenon in
the history of art—an ancient potter decorating a vase for sale at a village market stall probably did
not know who would buy the pot or where it would be housed—but it is not at all typical. In fact, it is
exceptional. Throughout history, most artists created paintings, sculptures, and other objects for specific
patrons and settings and to fulfill a specific purpose, even if today no one knows the original contexts
of those artworks. A museum visitor can appreciate the visual and tactile qualities of these objects, but
without knowing the circumstances of their creation, that modern viewer cannot understand why they
were made or why they appear as they do. Art appreciation and aesthetic judgments in general do not
require knowledge of the historical context of an artwork (or a building). Art history does.
1
30702_intro_rev03_xxxii-013.indd 1 12/06/18 12:38 pm

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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)
The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY
With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER
Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT
SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB
CUTTING THE EDGE

FINISHING THE BOTTOM
LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING
FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE
TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK
DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG
REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

BEATING THE BARK
WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A

Global History, Volume II 16th Edition,

■ art and society: Art in the Princely Courts of Renaissance France 702

■ art and society: Witchcraft and the Macabre 693

■ the patron’s voice: Francis I, Royal Art Patron and

96609_fm_rev02_i-xvi.indd 6 13/08/18 10:53 am

■ art and society: Grand Manner Portraiture 786

Timeline 740 ■ artists on aRT: Jacques-Louis David on Greek Style

Dutch Republic 746 ■ the patron’s voice: Thomas Jefferson, Patron and

■ artists on aRT: Rubens on Consequences of War 743

■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Frans Hals’s Group Portraits 748

■ artists on aRT: Thomas Cole on the American

Neoclassicism 789 ■ materials and techniques: Lithography 826

96609_fm_rev02_i-xvi.indd 7 13/08/18 10:53 am

■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Prefabricated Architecture 841

■ materials and techniques: Daguerreotypes, Calotypes,

Map 27-1 The Napoleonic Empire in 1812 802 29 Modernism in Europe,

■ art and society: Academic Salons and Independent Art Architecture 926

96609_fm_rev02_i-xvi.indd 8 13/08/18 10:53 am

■ art and society: Pop Art and Consumer Culture 974

■ artists on aRT: Philip Johnson on Postmodern

■ artists on aRT: Alfred Stieglitz on “Straight THE BIG PICTURE 1 0 0 1

■ the patron’s voice: The Museum of Modern Art as

modernism in Europe and America, Art Today 1004

96609_fm_rev02_i-xvi.indd 9 13/08/18 10:53 am

■ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS: Norman Foster, the Gherkin, Momoyama 1079

■ the patron’s voice: The Qutb Minar and the Triumph

Korea 1071 Map 36-1 Mixteca-Puebla and Aztec sites in Mesoamerica 1094

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THE BIG PICTURE 1 1 4 9

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96609_fm_rev02_i-xvi.indd 12 13/08/18 10:53 am

96609_fm_rev02_i-xvi.indd 13 13/08/18 10:53 am

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about the author

About the Author xv

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MindTap for MindTap Mobile

Instructors Lecture Notes & Study Guides

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Greco-Roman Temple Design and the Classical Orders xviii

■ religion and mythology

The Gods and Goddesses of Mount Olympus xxv

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DORIC ORDER IONIC ORDER

Raking cornice Raking cornice

Doric and Ionic orders

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Roman Ionic pseudoperipteral temple Corinthian capital

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Arch Barrel vault

Groin vault Hemispherical dome with oculus

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Medieval barrel-vaulted church

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96609_Before 1300_rev02_xvii-xxxi.indd 22 25/07/18 5:39 pm

Transept Crossing Transept

Plan of Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France,

West facade of Amiens Cathedral, Amiens, France, begun 1220

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Hermes and infant Dionysos,

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