Albrecht Durer was the greatest and most innovative printmaker of the Renaissance. A native of Nuremberg, Germany, he had established an international reputation by the beginning of the sixteenth century with the publication of the woodcut series,…
Having defeated Ravana, rescued Sita, and returned to his kingdom, Rama here takes center stage at his coronation in Ayodhya. Holding his characteristic bow and arrow, clothed in gold, his crowned head ringed by a shining halo, he sits on a throne in…
This figure represents "Mami Wata," the pidgin English term for "Mother of Water," a water spirit who has enjoyed a wide following in Central Africa, West Africa, and regions of the African Diaspora. It was carved by an Ibibio artist living in…
In the Cross River Region of Nigeria, the rivalry between masking associations gave artists incentives to generate new art forms and styles. Each association lavished great expense on masquerade paraphernalia in a bid to display the most impressive…
This is the last in a series of ten devotional images of the Virgin and Child that Durer engraved over a period of more than twenty years. This is the only one, however, that portrays a sleeping child. Depictions of the infant Jesus asleep in his…
Bocio are power objects (bo) that represent deceased human beings (chio). A bocio is not a spirit, but a kind of decoy meant to trick death by acting as a substitute for a real person. Formerly, the Fon people of Dahomey (now Benin) placed bocio…