The three works that I chose that are art of portraiture are Head of a King, Mask of an Lyoba, and Mother Goddess. The first two portraits are West African Art from two different tribes, Ife, who created the Head of a King and Benin, whom created the Mask of an Lyoba. The Mother Goddess is an Aztec piece. These groups of people are from different cultures, time periods, and share different religious beliefs. The similarity of the groups is the symbolic meaning the portraitures brought to its people. The first work is the Head of a King. This Ife...
understanding art created stylized works that also expressed their identity, far more than anything naturalistic did. All three works represents the people and what is important to them. For the Aztec people it was their gods, and representing them in a dramatic and powerful way to teach their people.

While the Ife people believed that the gods created them in likeness to themselves, so the portraits were also of their people in the ideal form that the gods wanted. The Benin culture were fascinated by art, and wanted to show respect to their rulers by their representation of them.