Bronze Head From Ife
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The Bronze Head from Ife, or Ife Head, is one of eighteen copper alloy sculptures that were unearthed in 1938 at Ife in
Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
, the religious and royal centre of the Yoruba people. It is believed to represent a king. It was probably made in the 12th-13th century CE. The realism and sophisticated craftsmanship of the objects challenged the dismissive and patronising Western conceptions of
African art African art encompasses modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual cultures originating from indigenous African diaspora, African communities across the African continent. The definition may also include the ar ...
. The naturalistic features of the Ife heads are unique and the stylistic similarities of these works "suggest that they were made by an individual artist or in a single workshop."


Description

Like most West African "
bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...
s" the piece is actually made of
copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
alloyed with other metals, described by the British Museum as "heavily leaded zinc-brass". Modern practice in museums and
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
is increasingly to avoid terms such as bronze or brass for historical objects in favour of the all-embracing "
copper alloy Copper alloys are metal alloys that have copper as their principal component. They have high resistance against corrosion. Of the large number of different types, the best known traditional types are bronze, where tin is a significant addition, ...
". The head is made using the lost wax technique and is approximately three-quarters life-size, measuring 35 cm high. The artist designed the head in a very naturalistic style. The face is covered with incised striations, but the lips are unmarked. The headdress suggests a
crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...
of complex construction, composed of different layers of tube shaped beads and tassels. This decoration is typical of the bronze heads from Ife.Bronzes from Ife and Benin
Peter Herrmann, Berlin, 2007, retrieved 30 November 2013
The crown is topped by a crest, with a rosette and a plume which now is slightly bent to one side. The crown's surface includes the remains of both red and black paint. The lifelike rendering of sculptures from medieval Ife is exceptional in Sub-Saharan African art, and initially was considered the earliest manifestation of a tradition that continued in Yoruba art, in early Benin art and other pieces.


Excavation and removal

The Ife Head was found by accident in 1938 at the Wunmonije Compound, Ife, during house-building works amongst sixteen other
brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...
and
copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
heads and the upper half of a brass figure. Most of the objects found in the Wunmonije Compound and neighbouring areas ended up in the National Museum of Ife, but a few pieces were taken from Nigeria and are now in the collections of major museums. This particular Ife Head was taken from Nigeria by the editor of the '' Daily Times of Nigeria'', H. Maclear Bate, who probably sold it to the
National Art Collections Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charitable organization, charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for man ...
,Ife head Brass head of a ruler
British Museum highlights, retrieved 30 November 2013
which then passed it onto the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
in 1939. The discovery of the sculptures was the spur for the government to control the export of antiquities from Nigeria. Before this was achieved, this head made its way to London via Paris and another two were sent to America. Attempts to prevent further exports, prompted by
Leo Frobenius Leo Viktor Frobenius (29 June 1873 – 9 August 1938) was a German self-taught ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography. Life He was born in Berlin as the son of a Prussian officer and died in Biganzolo, Lago M ...
, were successfully promulgated in 1938, when legislation was enacted by the colonial authorities. Frobenius was a German
ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...
and
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
who was one of the first European scholars to take a serious interest in African art, especially that of the Yoruba.


Ife

The Ife head is thought to be a portrait of a ruler known as an Ooni or Oni. It was probably made under the patronage of King Obalufon Alayemore whose famous naturalistic life-size face mask in copper shares stylistic features with this work. Today among the Yoruba, Obalufon is identified as the patron deity of brass casters. The period in which the work was made was an age of prosperity for the Yoruba civilisation, which was built on trade via the
River Niger The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Nige ...
to the peoples of West Africa. Ife is regarded by the Yoruba people as the place where their deities created humans. The copper used in this sculpture is thought to be from local Nigerian ores, although earlier scholars believed it to have come from
Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...
, North West
Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...
, the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
, or Southern
Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
. The bronze casts could have been modelled on contemporary
terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
sculptures. A long tradition of terracotta sculpture with similar characteristics existed in the culture prior to the date of the creation of these metal sculptures.
Ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...
was another material used frequently in African art. The Ife sculptural tradition is one of several West African artistic traditions, including the Bura of Niger (3rd century CE – 10th century CE), Koma of
Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
(7th century CE – 15th century CE),
Igbo-Ukwu Igbo-Ukwu ( English: ''Great Igbo'') is a town in the Nigerian state of Anambra in the south-central part of the country. The town comprises three quarters namely Obiuno, Ngo, and Ihite (an agglomeration of 4 quarters) with several villages wi ...
of Nigeria (9th century CE – 10th century CE), and Jenne-Jeno of Mali (11th century CE – 12th century CE), that may have been shaped by the earlier West African
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
tradition of the
Nok culture The Nok culture is a population whose material remains are named after the Ham people, Ham village of Nok in Southern Kaduna, southern Kaduna State of Nigeria, where their terracotta sculptures were first discovered in 1928. The Nok people and ...
of central Nigeria.


Impact on art history

When Frobenius discovered the first example of a similar head it undermined existing Western understanding of African civilisation. Experts did not want to believe that Africa had ever had a civilisation capable of creating artefacts of this quality. Attempting to explain what was thought an anomaly, Frobenius offered his theory that these had been cast by a colony of
ancient Greeks Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically re ...
established in the thirteenth century BC. He made a claim, widely circulated in the popular press, that his hypothesised ancient Greek colony could be the origin of the ancient legend of the lost civilization of
Atlantis Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...
. It is now recognised that these statues represent an indigenous African tradition that attained a high level of realism and refinement. The Ife heads are often considered a great achievement of African culture, and it is believed that they were made by an individual artist in a single workshop.


Influence on contemporary culture

There is widespread use of the Ife Head in logos and branding of Nigerian corporations and educational institutions such as Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife. The Ife Head was the symbol for the 1973
All-Africa Games The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and the ...
in Lagos. The Ife Head held by the British Museum was included in the 2010 major exhibition ''Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa'', developed in partnership with Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments, the Museum for African Art, New York and the British Museum. The exhibition was part of a series of events that marked the 50th anniversary of Nigerian independence. In 2011 the Ife Head was included in the British Museum/BBC's '' A History of the World in 100 Objects'' File:Comemoração ao Dia da Consciência Negra (37827968524).jpg, Celebrating Black Awareness Day 2017 at the
Zumbi dos Palmares Zumbi ( – November 20, 1695), also known as Zumbi dos Palmares (), was a Brazilian quilombola leader and one of the pioneers of resistance to enslavement of Africans by the Portuguese in colonial Brazil. He was also the last of the kings of ...
Monument,
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
, Brazil


See also

*
Archaeology of Igbo-Ukwu The archaeology of Igbo-Ukwu is the study of an archaeological site located in a town of the same name: Igbo-Ukwu, an Igbo town in Anambra State in southeastern Nigeria. As a result of these findings, three excavation areas at Igbo-Ukwu were op ...
*
Benin bronzes The Benin Bronzes are a group of several thousand metal plaques and sculptures that decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Edo State, Nigeria. The metal plaques were produced by the Guild of Benin Bronze Casters, now ...
* Bronze Head of Queen Idia


References

Notes Further reading *Suzanne Preston Blier, Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Politics, and Identity c.1300, Cambridge University Press, 2015 *John Mack (ed), Africa, Arts and Cultures, London 2005 *Editha Platte, Bronze Head from Ife, British Museum Press, 2010 * Frank Willett, The Art of Ife (CD Rom), The University of Glasgow, 2004 {{British-Museum-100, 63, Hebrew astrolabe, David Vases Ife Head African sculptures in the British Museum Bronze sculptures in London Nigeria–United Kingdom relations