Reflection On The Bronze Head Of Ife

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Throughout the semester, when observing multiple forms of art; while all struck me to be beautiful, the one individual piece of work that I saw truly inspiring was the Bronze Head of Ife, which dated back to 600 A.D. This work inspired me because of how the art was way ahead of the time period in which it was created. The procedure to craft these bronze heads was complex in the way of casting the metal, and furthermore, it required large amounts of manual labor. This form of artwork was underrated at first, though as cultural and economic factors were introduced behind the Ife Head, the opinions quickly changes. At first sight, many viewers would think the art is unskilled and behind from the European forms of art. However, on the contrary, …show more content…
Furthermore, the history and culture of the Head of Ife is the piece of art that brings identity to Nigeria and West Africa as a whole, for the head is often compared to the art that came out of ancient Greece and Rome. Though what differentiates it from that of all European art is what the artist had to work with. Unable to either afford or come in contact with rich crafting materials like marble and stone, West Africa utilized that they had in order create a metallic mixture that could mold to the cast. When reviewing the complexity of this assignment, my goal was to create something that was original and that I would not suspect another classmate of mine would create. Between my love for history and respect for the arts, I wanted to challenge my artistic self into examining an under-recognized work of art and suggest its creative elements that are often overlooked. In order to identify and mimic the creative prospects of the work that elicit detail, I had to admire certain elements and suspect their relevance to the piece, where only then I could interpret them and advance my own creation from the techniques that I observed. While we study many beautiful pieces of art throughout the entirety of this semester, between the originality, economic struggles, and over complications that are exhibited within this work, I believe this work is the most advanced of which we saw, considering the region from whence it

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