The British Museum - Kingdom of Ife Sculptures from West Africa

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Fig. 2 In 1938, two feet below the ground of the Wunmonije Compound (near the Palace of the Ooni of Ife), a cache of bronze heads was uncovered while a foundation for a house was being dug. Shown here are some of the heads unpacked at the British Museum, where the Ooni sent them in 1948. the sites where these works of art were found, often by chance, have been continuously inhabited for centuries, making it difficult to determine their original contexts. In 1938, in the course of digging the foundations for a house at a spot that was probably once part of Ife’s royal palace, workers discovered a group of remarkably naturalistic copperalloy heads, now sometimes called the Wunmonije heads (fig. 2 and cat. nos. 1, 42–49), as well as the half-figure of a king mentioned above (cat. no. 38), named after the Wunmonije Compound site where they were found. In 1957, at a site in Ife called Ita Yemoo, a workman digging the foundation of an office building struck a metal object that turned out to be the magnificent copper-alloy couple now kept on display in the National Museum in Ife (fig. 3). This is one object that the Nigerian Commission for Museums and Monuments was reluctant to lend to the exhibition, because, of all the Ife objects, it is the one that is most visited in the Ife museum. The full standing figure of an Ooni mentioned above (cat. no. 3)and several scepters with gagged human heads (cat. nos. 84, 88, and 89) are also from the Ita Yemoo site. Over the years, many more objects have come to light from various sites in Ife, including glass beads, crucibles, and terra-cotta, stone, and metal sculptures. Although, beginning in the 1950s, there have been important excavations in Ife by Ekpo Eyo, Peter Garlake, and Frank Willett, among others, 4 many objects have been found entirely serendipitously. Even the serious excavations have been hampered by the fact that the sites have been continuously occupied, thus making the usual technique of studying archaeological sites according to strata of occupation inapplicable: because the older 4
layers have been mixed up with debris from later settlements, clear contexts and sequences are difficult to decipher. A few Ife objects had been brought to Europe before 1910, and were known to researchers at the British Museum. However, the most famous find in the early twentieth century was made that year by the German explorer Leo Frobenius. In a three-week visit and a return trip under police auspices, he collected information and objects, some of which are still in museums in Europe. Frobenius, like many others of his day, could not imagine that such works were of African origin and theorized that this great art was evidence of the lost Atlantis of the Greeks and that the Yoruba deity Olokun was the same god as the Greek Poseidon. 5 The people of Ife, including its rulers and priests, did know about the existence of this art, long before Europeans started taking note of it. Some objects were found inadvertently and were brought into the Ooni’s Palace for safekeeping, 6 but others were actively preserved in the palace and in shrines dedicated to different deities throughout the region. In some cases, although the sculptures may have been casually found, they were subsequently incorporated into new ritual contexts. Sites such as the Ore Grove, filled with stone and iron sculptures, or the Iwinrin Grove, where a substantial number of terra-cotta heads were found, are still places of active ceremonial life, where altars include old objects as well as newer ones. Several important sculptures, including the terra-cotta head said to represent the court servant Lajuwa (cat. no. 39), and the most famous object of all, the copper mask thought to represent the ruler Obalufon II (cat. no. 37), are said to have been kept in the palace since the time they were made. The exhibition Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa includes more than one hundred exceptional objects in metal, stone, and terra-cotta. Although some of the beautiful copper-alloy heads and figures in this exhibition have previously traveled outside Nigeria, many of the stone sculptures and the small terra-cotta objects, some of which show disease and deformity, have never been displayed outside that country. These diverse images show not only the serenity and self-assurance readily associated with the idea of dynasty but also suggestions of violence and misfortune that may also have been characteristic of life in Ife. As Peter Garlake, who excavated the Obalara Land site, has written, “the two distinct clusters of sculptures emphasize . . . the polarity in Ife art between serenity and violence, calm and terror, health and sickness.” 7 Moreover, we cannot forget the obverse of the tranquility we all admire. Artists just as competent and expressive showed with equally impressive insight and conviction—and great intensity—the violence, horrors, agonies, and sufferings of another part of society. Mortality is set against immortality, pain against serenity, restraint against abandon, the victim against authority, the sacrificial against the divine. In comparison, the Fig. 3 Pair of figures, Ita Yemoo, Nigeria, 14th–early 15th century C.E., copper alloy and pigment, H: 7½ in. (19 cm) / National Museum, Ile-Ife, Nigeria In 1957, this extraordinary copper-alloy sculpture of a couple was found by workmen beside the road to Ilesa, a few miles northeast of Ife. The face of the male figure was destroyed. The casting, scarcely ¹⁄16 inch thick in some places, appears to portray an Ooni and his queen. They wear and hold the symbols of their authority (ase). The crown and hair of the queen were painted black. The large beads on the king’s crown, the beads around their necks, and their wrappers were painted red. The forefingers of his hands are hooked together in what appears to be a ritual gesture. Her arm is linked through his, and his leg encircles her leg. The linking of male and female in Yoruba art expresses the cultural theme of dependence of the sexes upon one another for the actualization of their essential natures (iwa). middle ground of ordinary life was ignored. 8 To understand these contrasting forces, the corpus of ancient Ife art must be placed in the context of Yoruba culture—its history, mythology, beliefs and ritual practices, and traditions of rulership. In this light, the prevalence of these extraordinary depictions of illness and sacrifice are not straightforward representations of reality, but rather references to the centrality of one of the founding heroes, Obatala, in Ife myths and histories. Obatala is regarded as having had an important role in shaping human form, and abnormalities may be not simply signs of sin or illness, but rather marks of divinity Continued on page 10 5
Page 1: KINGDOM OF IFE SCULPTURES FROM WEST
Page 7: future, serious research and intern
Page 11: opposite: 1 Head with crown Wunmoni

The British Museum - Kingdom of Ife Sculptures from West Africa

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