African Arts Gallery

Yoruba head (N° 22197)

Made in the Cameroonian Grasslands using the traditional decorative technique using multicolored glass beads, this head reproduces the famous effigies of sovereigns. Carefully applied to a terracotta surface, the pearls accentuate the features and the royal headdress with strongly contrasting colors, while padouk powder enhances the inside of the ears and mouth. In African art, the artistic movement of which these sculptures are a part bears the name of the ancient religious capital of Nigeria, Ifè, one of the many city-states established by the Yoruba. This civilization succeeded the Nok civilization. This city-state of Ilé-Ifé, whose rise culminated from the 12th to the 15th century, had an artistic tradition of royal portraits imbued with realism, funeral effigies in bronze but also in terracotta.