250866 - Large, Old & Rare African Yoruba statue - Nigeria.
Large, Old & Rare African statue from the Yoruba, Nigeria.
Hand carved from a single piece of wood.
Size: 52 cm high.
This beautifully designed Yoruba sculpture was collected in 1969 by a France collector and is dated from the mid of the 20th century with certificate of authenticity.
This impressive and truly beautifully carved shrine statue, like most other types of Yoruba sculpture, is generally naturalistic. This statue depicts a woman with several children gathered around her, who express fertility and will later care for her in her old age. True to the classic Yoruba form, with a beautiful hair comb, springs, and facial markings, her eyes and disproportionate eyelids project from her oval face, giving the figure a spiritual intensity, enhanced by her stiff and tight lips.
In Yoruba culture, figurative sculptures draw and concretize the threshold between the world of the living and that of the dead. At shrines, a series of wooden sculptures depicting a male figure flanked by a courtly entourage of women, servants and attendants were displayed, serving to honor and commemorate the memory of important individuals.
These images are part of a range of art forms that provided access to influential ancestors and were also valued for their aesthetic excellence.