Picasso's African Period St. Petersburg). Picasso's African Period Picasso's African Period, which was three years long, lasted from 1906 to 1909, was the period when Pablo Picasso painted in a style which was strongly influenced by African sculpture and particularly traditional African masks. This proto-Cubist period following Picasso's Blue Period and Rose Period has also been called the Negro Period, or Black Period. In the early 20th century, African artworks were being brought back to Paris museums in consequence of the expansion of the French empire into Sub-Saharan Africa. The press was abuzz with exaggerated stories of cannibalism and exotic tales about the
Analatos Painter a pupil of the Late Geometric Statathou Painter. The earliest works ascribed to him are still within a clear Late Geometric tradition. For example, one of his Geometric "hydriai" depicts a "prothesis" (laying-out of a body), showing Egyptian influences. The adoption of eastern influences was a key feature of the subsequent Orientalising Period, of which the Analatos Painter was one of the main early proponents. Characteristic of this new style were fantastic animals, sphinxes without wings or faces, rows of dancing men or women, cable patterns and rosettes. His oldest known amphora, now in the Ashmolean Museum shows a row