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HOME :
African & Tribal Art :
Masterpieces of African Art : Yoruba Wooden Egungun Headcrest
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Yoruba Wooden Egungun Headcrest - PF.4682 (LSO)
Origin: Southwestern Nigeria
Circa: 20
th
Century AD
Dimensions:
13.5" (34.3cm) high
x 7" (17.8cm) wide
Collection: African
Style: Yoruba
Medium: Wood
£6,000.00
Location: Great Britain
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| Description |
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This imposing and serene piece is an Egungun
headcrest, which the Yoruba of Nigeria carve and
use in ceremonies dedicated to honouring dead
male ancestors. It is a compact yet highly ornate
model, with a round integral base (with halted
termite damage) ringed with perforations to
support a costume. The head is small and round,
with a high brow and a rounded chin. The face is
understated and serene, the eyes semicircular
forms with pierced pupils, the nose wide yet
pointed, the lips thick and parallel straight lines.
The coiffure is ornate and boxlike, denoted with
incised lines. It is surmounted with a sagittal and
coronal geometric crest with excised triangles,
which in turn is surmounted with a duck (?)
whose bill is inside the bill of another bird on the
mask’s forehead. The cheeks are scarred with
three vertical and three horizontal marks on each
side. The ears are pierced. It is dark brownish in
colour, with traces of red and paler pigment in
the depressed areas, and considerable handling
patination.
The Yoruba are a Central Nigerian tribal group,
originally descended from a Hausa migration
from the northeast in about 900 AD. A small
kingdom – Ile Ife – was founded by Oduduwa,
followed by great sociopolitical expansion into
Southwest Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The
influence of the city was felt far beyond these
boundaries, however, and many smaller political
entities were held under its sway. Communities
were presided over by the Oba (king) and various
senates (Ogboni), and councils made up of guild
leaders, merchants and the lesser aristocracy
(related to the Oba). The Yoruba have an
exceptionally rich and diverse mythology, history
and religious context, all of which are directly
linked to their artistic output; in Yoruba society,
this grouped heritage is known as the Itan.
Egungun masks are associated with rituals which
honour the collective spirits of deceased
ancestor, thus ensuring their benedictions upon
their descendents and also to uphold their
ancient ethical standards. Large-scale social
events are highly complex, with specially-trained
priests and initiates to bring out the spirits and
pass them into the bodies of the masqueraders.
The egungun thus use the bodies of the dancers
to symbolically drive out unethical and immoral
behaviour that has accrued in the village’s fabric
since their previous visit. They also single out
specific miscreants for public mocking, using the
anonymity of the costume and the solemnity of
the occasion to avoid future repercussions.
The masks used to dance at egungun ceremonies
(Odun Egungun) or familial variants differ
stylistically and conceptually from other Yoruba
mask forms such as Gelede and Epa. They are
essentially dished bases supporting
representations of animals and humans from
their shared past, usually expressing a myth or
specific leader etc. They thus vary according to
village. This specific piece is a classical
representation, which doubtless reflects some
social truth about the village from which it
comes. In our terms, it is a beautiful and unique
piece of African art.
- (PF.4682 (LSO))
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