When decorated, the yams represent ancestral spirits called nggwal.
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Revolutionary priests and an ex-member of the Spanish military led a charge for independence and equality for some.
Mexican Independence
Hawaiian nobility donned these “red garments” in ceremonies and battle and later gave them to Europeans as gifts.
Feather cape
During its brief fling with Christianity, the Kongo kingdom merged western iconography with local aesthetics.
Crucifix (Kongo peoples)
Used by a diviner during ritual sessions, these figures help to communicate with the spirits.
Pair of Diviner’s Figures (Baule peoples)
This chair or throne was one of the principal symbols of the authority of a Chokwe chief.
Chair or throne (Chokwe peoples)
Song explores Western abstraction, but also embraces the East-Asian tradition of ink wash painting.
Song Su-Nam, Summer Trees
Thinkers like Rousseau and Voltaire illuminated the world, just as Wright’s paintings shed light on new machinery.
The Age of Enlightenment, an introduction
Long before the advent of cell phones and social media, the Luba had invented their own handheld memory device.
Lukasa (Memory Board) (Luba peoples)
In title and medium, Song’s contemporary ink-wash painting looks back to the poetic landscape tradition.
Song Su-Nam, Summer Trees
The king did not sit for this portrait; in fact, the artist carved it without directly observing his subject.
Ndop Portrait of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul ...
Gauguin took every opportunity to describe this enigmatic painting with melodramatic flourish.
Paul Gauguin, Where do we come from? ...
The Islamic world turned writing into an art, but it’s the decoration, not the script, that sets these folios apart.
Mamluk Qur’an
These two paintings illustrate the same story, but in different styles—as rulers changed, so did tastes for art.
Bahram Gur in a Peasant’s House
As drums beat, a dog barks and a gun smokes. This lively, illuminated scene breaks the mold of group portraiture.
Rembrandt, The Night Watch
Archaeologists pulled these bronze warriors from the sea in 1972, but their origin and date remain a mystery.
Riace Warriors
Large and lavish, the images in this manuscript revived the classical style for medieval church use.
The Paris Psalter
Jesus is the central figure of this religion, but there are many sects—and great diversity of belief and practice.
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