Ashanti and Dahomean Architectural Bas-Reliefs

Abstract

Ever since African art was “discovered” as an aesthetic as opposed to ethnographical genre, enthusiasm for its emotional vigor and clarity of form has centered primarily upon sculpture. Sculpture, to be sure, is the most widespread mode of African artistic expression, and the description and analysis of regional and ethnic styles in sculpture either in the round or relief have commanded a great deal of attention; but, while carving in wood has been the chief medium modeling in clay has also been extensively developed. Some of the most interesting of African artistic achievements have been embodied in clay sculpture either in the round or in architectural reliefs, yet very little has been written on clay sculpture, and virtually nothing has been done on African architecture and its myriad patterns and styles of mural decoration. Reasons for this imbalance are not difficult to find: most of the books on African art have been written in Europe with the help of extensive museum and private collections. Mud sculpture, on the other hand, is extremely difficult to transport, especially if sun-dried and not fired; and architecture remains essentially impossible to study in absentia. A few anthropologists have mentioned mud sculpture and architecture, but writers on African art have tended to ignore this area of both historic and contemporary artistic achievement.