The Yoruba of West Africa (Benin, Nigeria and
Togo, with migrant communities in parts of
Ghana, and Sierra Leone) are responsible for one
of the finest artistic traditions in Africa, which
remains vital and influential still today.
Much of the art of the Yoruba, including staffs,
court dress, and beadwork for crowns, is
associated with the royal courts. The courts also
commissioned numerous architectural objects
such as veranda posts, gates, and doors that are
embellished with carvings.. The Yoruba worship a
large pantheon of deities, and shrines dedicated
to these gods are adorned with such carvings
and array of altar figures and other ritual
paraphernalia. Masking traditions vary regionally,
and a wide range of mask types are employed in
various festivals and celebrations.
The Yoruba people regard the human head (ori)
as the most important part of a person. Likewise,
the head is the most prominent part of every
Yoruba sculpture., as the head constitutes a
person's life-source and controlling personality
and destiny.
In the absence of any written early history, the
beginnings of Benin art are obscure. European
documentation confirms that ivory carving and
metalwork flourished from the 15th to the late
19th century, the period during which Benin
dominated the pepper trade and was a
formidable military power. Benin plaques and
figures were unknown in Europe and America
until 1897, when British troops on a punitive
expedition destroyed the capital city of Benin; the
thousands of artworks confiscated were taken to
London and sold. It was then that the British
Museum and the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin
acquired the core of their great Benin collections.
- (AM.0429)
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