A Digital History of Art

Justine Wintjes and students of Art History at the University of the Witwatersrand are exploring items from the Human Science collections through cutting-edge digital techniques that allow us to see objects in entirely new ways. Doctoral student Anton Coetzee produced two preliminary 3D models. The first is a model of a sculpture of engraved cattle horns made by an unnamed African artist in the 1880s. The engravings depict scenes from the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. The second model is of a rare example of San mobile art found in the Maloti-Drakensberg. A careful look reveals faint images of several rhebuck painted in red, pink and white on one side of the stone.