This beautifully-observed and charmingly-
executed sculpture of a snake charmer pertains
to a cultural tradition of enormous importance to
the development of West African and even world
art trends. The Ife people were at the very
forefront of technological and aesthetic
innovation, and their artworks count among the
very earliest naturalistic anthropomorphic
statuary in the world, significantly predating the
European renaissance, and even today ranking
among humanity’s greatest artistic
achievements.
This piece represents a well-nourished male, sat
cross-legged with the left leg splayed to the side
and his right leg raised and with his right elbow
resting on his knee. The modelling of his face is
exceptionally fine, with a high forehead, arched
brows, a tapering nose and relief-rimmed eyes,
his head topped with a skullcap (which usually
implies a certain social status in Ife art). His
figure is rounded, with a plump stomach,
rounded shoulders and naturalistic legs with
spatulate feet. The arms are also well modelled,
with expressionistically-rendered hands. He is
dressed in a lattice-worked and pleated loincloth
that reaches from the hips to the mid-thigh. He
has a snake wrapped around his right wrist and
held in the right hand, while the serpent
continues to his left hand there his fingers grip it
right behind the head.
The social role of this piece is uncertain; it may
be unique. What is certain is that it must have
been an important piece at the time it was made.
Ife metalwork is the finest in the ancient world;
their refinement – castings being only about
1/16th of an inch thick – was not equalled in the
west until the 19th century. Despite using
comparatively crude technologies based around
the cire perdue (lost wax) casting technique, the
Ife (and, to an extent, the Benin who followed
them) were able to make it especially thin in the
mould, and thus to capture fine, delicate surface
detail. Early European explorers were so
astonished by the fineness of these pieces that
they refused to believe that the African
populations had manufactured them, despite the
fact that “classic” African features are depicted in
every case. The Ife were also able to cast their
pieces in almost pure copper, without recourse
to zinc that is used today to make the metal flow
easier; they achieved this using multi-section
crucibles and complex moulds, although the
finer details of their craft still elude us.
The Ife are best known for their sculptures of
heads, which represent early kings and
aristocrats, and which seem to have been used
for public display, probably with textile costumes
of some sort. Smaller pieces are less well
understood. Various friezes and plaques are
known, as are artefacts such as bells. The
prevalence of heads may be in some way linked
to the long-standing conviction that divine
regality resides within the head of the king; this
was a widespread belief in the Yoruba/Benin
polity, and the Ife went so far as to remove the
heads of dead kings and bury them around the
eponymous town of Ife. There are counter-
arguments to this, however, and the role of the
heads (perhaps ancestors) remains uncertain.
One-off pieces such as this are yet more so.
Handling snakes was not something accorded a
great deal of artistic significance in the Ife
repertoire. Snakes themselves are not especially
common in Ife works; one example is a ceramic
vessel (Drewal and Pemberton 1989: 65) with a
snake around the neck. However, the authors
attribute no specific significance to this, and just
talk of its compositional impact. No hints could
be derived from the Yoruba, for although the
multiplicity of animals in their art all had their
own significance, snakes are usually omitted. In
general – world – terms, snakes can symbolise
everything from deceit to guardianship, poison,
rebirth, vindictiveness and rebirth, according to
various different faiths. In general terms, African
groups tend to distrust, avoid and dislike snakes;
their use as magical symbols in some tribes
further heightens the significance of the. IT
would probably have been intended to portray a
person with magical or otherworldly powers, be
they magico-religious or historico-mythological
– that is, a shaman/witch doctor, or an ancestor.
Whatever its significance, however, this is a
striking and attractive piece of African art.
