Eternal Ancestors : The Art of the Central African Reliquary

by Edited by Alisa LaGamma; With contributions by Barbara Boehm, Elias K. Bongmba,Kairn Klieman, Alisa LaGamma, Denise Patry Leidy, and Louis Perrois

• ISBN13: 9780300124095
• ISBN10: 0300124090
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2007-11-28
• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Summary

Many masterpieces of central African sculpture were created to amplify the power of sacred relics that affirm a family's vital connection to its ancestral heritage. This important volume, focusing on some 130 works representing a diverse variety of regional genres, illuminates the purpose and significance of these icons of African art, which first came to prominence because of their appeal to the Western avant-garde. While providing an overview of sources ranging from colonial explorers, missionaries, critics, artists, and art historians, the book breaks new ground in its examination of the complex aesthetic and spiritual dimensions of the reliquaries. Its interdisciplinary approach brings together the perspectives of scholars in African and medieval art history along with those in African history, religion, and ethnography.

Author Biography

Alisa LaGamma is Curator in the Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Table of Contents

Map: Cultural Regions Represented by Works in the Catalogue
Eternal Ancestors: The Art of the Central African Reliquary	p. 3
Of Ancestors and Earth Spirits: New Approaches for Interpreting Central African Politics, Religion, and Art	p. 33
The Western Historiography of African Reliquary Sculpture	p. 63
Ancestor Veneration in Central Africa	p. 79
"To learned people this may seem to be full of superstition": Reliquary Sculpture in the Medieval Christian Tradition	p. 87
The Body Eternal: The Aesthetics of Equatorial African Reliquary Sculpture	p. 97
Catalogue
Central African Reliquaries	p. 122
Other Works	p. 325
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