Yamato Tani
ART124D
Matthew Allison
The Final Assignment
Directions;
• Description; how it looks, how it is made
• Analysis; how you respond visually, how it feels
• Meaning (content); what the subject is, what symbols are present
• Context; who made it, when, what culture, time or style. Are there any
similarities between the two works?
• Judgment: is this a good example of this style of art, is it an important work to
art history, do you appreciate this work, what do you think about it?
#1 Couple
When I see this work for the first time, I feel that this sculpture is well
describing the shape of the man and the woman standing next to each other on the base.
Actually, in this work, both of the symbols of man and woman are really prominent, and
also they are standing on the base, which looks like the cliff or the summit of something.
According to the website, this was mad e by the Sakalava artist in western Madagascar to
grace the pinnacle of a hazomanga, which was made from the wood set in the place in
front of the house of the clan elder. As to analysis of this work, at a lance of this work, I
felt I was looking at the ideal form of human beings, so I was really impressed. However,
I also felt strange to this work because I thought why they needed to make this work to
show this to people. Then, the subject of this work is, of course, the man and the woman
to show what they are and what the ideal is. Before I saw some sculptures made a long
time ago, they were made up with clothes on it, but this shows what the man and the
woman look like exactly without any cloth. Directly, people tried to indicate for other
people how and what human beings should look like. Therefore, this work is really
innovative and outstanding, compared to other works. Like I said, as to context, it is really
clear. The Sakalava made this in western Madagascar in 17th-18th centuries, which used
the style of wooden sculpture. Actually I don’t see any significant similarity between this
