251219 - Large, Old & Rare African Yoruba Altar mask - Nigeria.
Large Old African Altar mask from the Yoruba, Nigeria.
Hand carved from a single piece of wood.
Size: 67 cm high.
This beautifully designed Yoruba sculpture was collected in 1971 by a France collector and is dated from the mid of the 20th century with certificate of authenticity.
This impressive and truly beautifully sculpted shrine statue, like most other Yoruba statues, is generally naturalistic. It depicts a man on horseback riding through the marriage arch, flanked on both sides by several children around him, who radiate fertility and will care for him in old age. True to the classic Yoruba form, with a beautiful horsetail and facial markings, her eyes and disproportionate eyelids protrude from his 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.