Ife Bronze Head

This astounding bronze head comes from a crucial time in the development of West African artistic traditions and technological innovation. Ife sculptures count among some of the earliest naturalistic expressions of humans in the world, significantly predating the European Renaissance, and even today ranking among humanity’s greatest artistic achievements.

This piece is an example of masterful Ife metalwork, which was one of the finest in the ancient world. Their refinement of metalwork, with castings being only about 1/16th of an inch thick, was not equalled in the west until the 19th century. The head is largely naturalistic, and is shaped with full cheeks, a rounded jaw, a high brow, a flat forehead, narrow eyes, a well-shaped nose as well as full lips. The head is topped with a cap-like piece of headwear that cuts around the ear, suggesting a skullcap design. The entire surface is rendered as vertical lines in relief, stretching around the jowls then up the face into the line formed by the edge of the cap. The only polished (unlined) areas are the eyes, the lips, the cap and the ears, which are small and pressed back against the sides of the head. The neck, which is columnar and decorated with six lightly-impressed horizontal lines, is also unadorned. This is non-naturalistic, and was probably designed to be hidden by a textile or other perishable “body” or similar; this possibility is substantiated by the presence of pierced holes around the perimeter of the neck.

This piece was finely produced using cire perdue (lost wax) casting, in which an object is created from a single-use mould. This level of craftsmanship was greatly admired by early European explorers. The Ife were also able to cast their pieces in almost pure bronze, without recourse to zinc that is used today to make the metal flow easier; they achieved this using multi- section crucibles and complex moulds, although the finer details of their craft still elude us. As suggested above, the piercings and the neck format imply a ceremonial role for the piece, perhaps as a ritual object that was displayed or paraded on special occasions. A similar object was kept on an altar in Ife and is believed to represent Obalufon II, the first king of Ife, who is said to have introduced the art of metal casting to his people. The central difference is that the latter can be worn as a mask, possessing eye-holes and a hollow back. Plain-neck pieces such as this have been recovered from the royal enclosures at Ife, and are believed to have been placed on wooden bodies and dressed for some special occasion. However, the finer details are lost to us. The personage portrayed is probably a member of the royal family, modeled from life. She must have been immensely important to the Ife people if she was important enough to be portrayed in this way.