メトロポリタン美術館さんのインスタグラム写真 - (メトロポリタン美術館Instagram)「Arachnophobes, beware!🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷 Staffs like this webby one are carried by high-ranking officials within the courts of Akan chiefs in West Africa. Their finials—or tops—commonly illustrate proverbs that assert a ruler's legitimacy and capabilities or praise a linguist's experience and wisdom. This finial refers to the saying, “No one goes to the house of the spider Anansi to teach him wisdom." Known as the originator of folk tales and proverbs, #Anansi the spider is a fitting character for the staff of a court linguist, who carries on his legacy. Much like Anansi, a court linguist's knowledge shouldn't be challenged. Court linguists play an invaluable role in Akan circles of leadership. Their vast knowledge and superior diplomacy make them essential as counselors, ambassadors, legal experts, and historians, and most Akan rulers employ several linguists to serve in their courts. 🎨 Unknown Akan maker (Ghana). Staff of Office: Figures, spider web and spider motif (ȯkyeame), 19th–early 20th century. Provenance: Richard J. Faletti, Clarendon Hills, IL, until 1986. On view in Gallery 352.」10月31日 11時37分