230428 - Antique Terracotta Sokoto statue - Nigeria

Antique Terracotta Sokoto statue - Nigeria.

This superb and highly characteristic statue measures 16 cm in height. 

This Sokoto sculpture was collected in my private collection in 1997.

A fragmentary male terracotta Sokoto statue, upper part of the body with head and arms, the arms are angled in front of the chest, the head with a beard beneath a full-bodied mouth and a moustache, a nose with prominent nostrils and half-closed eyes with broad eyebrows, he wears a helmet or a helmet-like hairstyle.

The art of Sokoto was born in the middle valley of the Niger, and reveals a refined and highly evolved civilization.

This civilization is contemporary with the civilization of Nok. The geographical areas overlapand the exchanges between the two peoples were to be important.

Among the pieces listed during the excavations, are mainly preserved isolated heads, mostly male,originally belonging to statues of figures standing in a frontal attitude

Sokoto heads generally adopt the same characteristic construction: globular skull, high forehead cleared, pupil pierced and underlined by a semicircle, flat, triangular face.

A few examples are distinguished by the formal treatment accorded to the face.

Literature.: Karl-Ferdinand Schaedler, Erde und Erz, 2500 Jahre Afrikanische Kunst aus Terrakotta und Metall, 1997

Literature: Frederick John Lamp, Ancient Terracotta Figurines from Northern Nigeria. Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, 2011.