AP Art History Pacific – Flashcards

Nan Madol
c. 700-1600 CE
Basalt boulders and prismatic columns
Pohnpei, Micronesia
#213-megalithic architecture
-political and ceremonial seat of the Saudeleur Dynasty
-used to isolate the nobility of Pohnpei from the commoners

Moai on platform (ahu)
c. 1100-1600 CE
Volcanic tuff figures on basalt base
Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
#124-commemorate important ancestors
-around 887 moai in total
-size & complexity of statues increased over time
-moai originally stood with their backs to the sea, watching over Easter Island
-figures came from basalt which was from volcano

‘Ahu ‘ula (feather cape)
late 18th century CE
feathers and fiber
Hawaiian
#214-a feather cape from Hawaii
-worn during ceremonies and battle by the Hawaiian male nobility
-yellow feathers in this cape were very scarce, making them very valuable
-large amounts of these capes were given as gifts to some of the first European explorers in Hawaii

Staff god
late 18th-early 19th century CE
wood, tapa, fiber, feathers
Cook Islands, central Polynesia
396 cm
#216-bark cloth is meant to protect the ancestral power (mana)
-a major deity that the Cook Islanders would worship
-mix of female and male elements, missionaries removed and destroyed them because they found them obscene
-rare representation of an important deity to the Cook Islanders before their conversion to Christianity
-no other large staff gods from the Cook Islands

Female deity
c. 18th-19th century CE
wood
Nukuoro, Micronesia
#217-figurines represent a specific female or male deity
-were placed in temples decorated with paint, feathers, headdresses
-during time of rituals, the sculptures were considered a “resting place” of a god or ancestor’s spirit

Buk (mask)
mid to late 19th century CE
turtle shell, wood, fiber, feathers, shell
Torres Strait
#218-part of an elaborate costume that would be worn by a dancer and seen at rituals for the harvest, funerary rituals, etc.
-could represent a hero, ancestor, or the bird on the top of the mask could be associated somehow with the human face
-strong connection between man and supernatural

Hiapo (tapa)
c. 1850-1900 CE
Tapa or bark cloth
freehand painting
#219-bark cloth is women’s art
-inner bark of the paper mulberry tree
-patterns could be applied with stamps
-rubbed and stained w/ design tablets
-traditionally used for clothing
-ceremonially at weddings or birthdays
-wrapped around sacred deities
-stopped being produced in late 19th century
-unique Niuan design

Tamati Waka Nene
c. 1890 CE
oil on canvas
Gottfried Lindauer
#220-record likenesses
-allow ancestors to remain in the life of the living (embodiment)
-New Zealand – Maori peoples
-shows change to Wesleyan faith
-believed to be based off a photograph
-Tamati waka Nene was an important leader of the Maori peoples

Navigation chart
19th century
wood and shell
Micronesia
#221-horizontal –> support
-diagonal/vertical –> wave swells
-shells = islands
-critical for understanding how to navigate the water

Malagan display and mask
c. 1882-83 CE
wood, vegetable fiber, pigment and shell
Papa New Guinea
#222-used for rituals then destroyed
-meant to worship/honor the dead/ancestors
-very intricate, a lot of detail went into making them

Presentation of Fijian mats and tapa cloths to Queen Elizabeth II
1953-1954 royal tour
#223
made by bark and Pandanus plant-photograph of them performing
-multimedia performance
-meant to honor the queen
-showed tradition through clothing, songs, dance, etc.
-Queen Elizabeth II going on a royal tour, visiting places with strong native influences
-When she came to Fiji, the natives gave her a taste of their traditional culture; presented traditional mats to the Queen

Ambum Stone #9
c.1500 BCE
made by stonefunction: idk
discovered in a cave in the early 1960s, was made more than 3500 years ago and is one of the earliest known Pacific works of art.