Portraits of African Leadership

Often the very act of commissioning a portrait was an indication of the ruler’s power and dynastic legitimacy.
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Commemorative Figure (Lefem), Wood, organic matter, Bangwa
Bangwa
19th–early 20th century
Standing Male and Female Figures, Wood, beads, Tabwa peoples
Tabwa peoples
18th–19th century
Buffalo figure, Silver, iron, wood, copper alloy, Fon peoples, Danhomè Kingdom
Fon peoples, Danhomè Kingdom
19th century
Elephant bocio, Hountondji guild artists, Silver (silver/copper alloy), Fon
Hountondji guild artists
19th century
Seated Male Figure, Wood, glass, metal, kaolin, Kongo peoples, Kakongo group
Kongo peoples, Kakongo group
mid to late 19th century
Oba with Animals, Brass, Edo peoples
Edo peoples
18th–19th century

In Africa, sculptural depictions of rulers and ancestral heroes have served a variety of political, spiritual, and commemorative functions. Passed down along dynastic lines or commissioned by current rulers, such images were often displayed as evidence of pedigree to justify and consolidate power, and sometimes served as conduits for communication between the ancestors and their living successors. Rulers often utilized the medium of portraiture to present themselves to their subjects, frequently in idealized terms that conveyed their physical, intellectual, and spiritual superiority. Often the very act of commissioning a portrait was an indication of the ruler’s power and dynastic legitimacy that demonstrated the individual’s control over important economic and artistic resources. In some political traditions, it also showed that a ruler had undergone ritual processes of investiture that revealed his or her underlying character and ultimate destiny—features that could then be realized in visual form. Some types of portraiture were not figural at all but evoked the subject metaphorically by portraying a set of personal attributes in visual form. Finally, portraits might serve an honorific purpose, memorializing eminent members of the community.


Contributors

Alexander Ives Bortolot
Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University

October 2003


Further Reading

Borgatti, Jean M., and Richard Brilliant. Likeness and Beyond: Portraits from Africa and the World. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Center for African Art, 1990.


Citation

View Citations

Bortolot, Alexander Ives. “Portraits of African Leadership.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aprt/hd_aprt.htm (October 2003)