African Art

Bronze Head from Ife

The Bronze Head from Ife, or Ife Head, is one of eighteen copper alloy sculptures that were unearthed in 1938 at Ife in Nigeria, the religious and royal centre of the Yoruba people. It is believed to represent a king (Ooni). It was probably made in the 14th-15th century CE. The realism and sophisticated craftsmanship of the objects challenged the dismissive and patronising Western conceptions of African art. 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."

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸AD 60
• ▸Dje
• ▸Depiction of Jesus

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.