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…
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…
This embroidered cloth is sometimes called "Kasai velvet" after the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo from which they originate and the cut-pile technique of their manufacture. The underlying raffia structure is woven by men on upright looms…
In this engraving Durer introduced the values of the Italian Renaissance to northern Europe. The print was much admired in his time and was to be a model for other artists for generations. In 1494-95 as a precocious young artist Durer traveled from…
This folio tells the story from the Adi Parva, the first book of the Mahabharata, of the eagle Garuda, who became the vahana (animal mount) for the god Vishnu. Garuda's mother Vinata and her co-wife Kadru had engaged in a wager that Vinata lost,…