Download or read book The Royal Arts of Africa written by Suzanne P. Blier and published by Prentice Hall. This book was released on 1998-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For use in an undergraduate or graduate course in African Art; also suitable as a supplementary reading for art history surveys. Lavishly illustrated, this historically grounded text draws together key traditions from West, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa to present an informative and captivating survey of the most important royal arts in the great sub-Saharan African kingdoms. Exploring the diverse ways that African rulers employed art and architecture to define individual and state identity, it provides an overview of the major themes in royal African art and discusses what these arts reveal about the nature of kingship.