A veranda post of Olówè of Isè or his workshop, before 1938. Olówè depicted two females on this two-tiered post. The figure kneeling on the circular platform is adorned like a bride. She wears five rows of waistbeads and her back is decorated with scarification that signifies betrothal. Diagonally across her breasts hang two bags for ritual paraphernalia (àpo) or dance panels (yata). She is surmounted by another female figure standing on a square platform with rounded corners, decorated with lines and waves. Her elaborately plaited hairstyle indicates her status as a royal senior wife. She is dressed in a girded wrapper, her upper body is bare. In her right hand she holds an object which could be a ritual spoon or a mirror and in her left hand she holds a child that she is breastfeeding. From the top of her head projects the intact capital that supports the roof beam. From an old German collection.

„In the Yoruba monarchy, the kings senior wife was the highest-ranking woman after his mother. She wielded the greatest power in the palace, controlling access to the royal insignia used on high state occasions and maintaining the palace treasures. It was she who placed the crown on the kings head at his coronation.“ R.A. Walker, 66.

Lit.: Roslyn Adele Walker, Olówè of Isè. A Yoruba Sculptor to Kings,1998. Roslyn Adele Walker, The Ikere Palace Veranda Posts by Olowe of Ise. African Arts, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Jan., 1991), pp. 77-78, 104. Bolaji Campbell. Reviewed Work: Olówè of Isè: A Yoruba Sculptor to Kings by Roslyn Adele Walker, African Arts, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Spring 2000), pp. 88-89. John Pemberton III, Art and Rituals for Yoruba Sacred Kings, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2 (1998), pp. 96-111, 174. Alisa LaGamma, Authorship in African Art, African Arts, Vol. 31, No. 4, Special Issue: Authorship in African Art, Part 1 (Autumn 1998), pp. 18-23. Alisa LaGamma, Beyond Master Hands: The Lives of the Artists, African Arts, Vol. 31, No. 4, Special Issue: Authorship in African Art, Part 1 (Autumn 1998), pp. 24-37, 89-90. Roslyn Adele Walker, Olówè of Isè: Anonymous Has a Name, African Arts, Vol. 31, No. 4, Special Issue: Authorship in African Art, Part 1 (Autumn 1998), pp. 38-47, 90. Nii Q. Quarcoopome, Three Works of Olówè of Isè, Bulletin of the detroit Institute of Arts, Vol. 85, No. 1/4 (2011), pp. 42-51.

sold

Height: 220 cm
Weight: 31 kg