This impressive couple is made in the style of the
Ife people of Nigeria. It comprises a single bronze
moulding of two short, powerfully-built couple
standing side by side, their arms interlocked.
They are dressed in tunics brought in around their
waists, scarifications, extensive jewellery
including neck-rings and bracelets, and
impressive tall crows with a central diadem and a
spike on the apex. The figure on the right has
wrapped his right foot around the back of the
others’ left heel.
Ife was perhaps the single most important culture
in West Africa. At its peak in the first half of the
second millennium AD, it is particularly noted for
its fine metalwork, notably brass casting, a
tradition inherited by the later Benin and Yoruba
polities. Unusually for African art, their works
were often extremely lifelike and naturalistic,
which disproved many art historians’ assertions
that African art was ‘primitive’ due to lack of
ability. They are well known for the stripes that
adorn the faces of their most impressive
sculptures, naturalistic heads. Most of their
artistic oeuvres depict the ruling elites (especially
the Obas – known as Oonis in Ife) as well as
zoomorphic and general anthropomorphic figures,
in addition to ‘cult’ objects of various forms and
uncertain significance.
This is a reiterative piece in that the Ife, as a
sociopolitical group, were technically extinct at
the time this was made. However, their distinctive
styles live on in later works by their descendents,
such as the Yoruba and other Nigerian groups.
This is an impressive piece of African art.
- (AM.0428 (LSO))
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