image statuette figure

Carving in wood of figure group: chief seated with fly whisk, beaded crown with birds on top, below are 3 female servants standing, and at base two wives, seated. Described in Reid (1912) as a 'fetish'.

Macgregor, William Sir

Yoruba

Late: 1909

Macgregor, William Sir

wood pigment

H: 1545 mm W: 245 mm

Africa Nigeria South.West.Nigeria Abeokuta

The Yoruba of Nigeria are skilled carvers, the most prolific in Africa, producing large vigorous, wooden sculptures and statues in a great diversity of subject matter, including everyday scenes and religious subjects. The sculptural tradition in the Nigerian region can be traced back to the Nok about 2000 BC. The surviving wood carvings of the Yoruba are probably only up to two hundred years old, as even hardwoods do not survive in the climate, but the tradition is probably far older. This is a carved wooden figure group of a chief and his household. The carving is simple, not of the quality of the hardwood carving from northern Nigeria, the quality of the wood is probably not so good either. The statue is painted in white, black, blue and yellow. The chief is seated on a stool at the top of the statue. He wears a diagonally striped robe over one shoulder and a large conical hat which has been carved with triangular incisions and painted to represent a beaded crown. A carved bird stands on the apex with three others, apparently pecking around the sides. The birds often represent connections with the spirit world in W Africa. The chief holds a fly-whisk, a symbol of authority and he wears a pair of shoes. Below him are three female standing figures, the female servants of the houshold, who support the chief's platform. They have striped black and white loin cloths and elaborate, upswept hairstyles. Below them, at the bottom of the statue, is a niche in which sit the carved figures of the chief's two wives, unclothed except for banded waistbands, and also with upswept hair. All the figures are painted with their cicatrices, or scars, as groups of three lines on the forehead and cheeks and a single line on the chin, in black. The sculpture comes from Abeokuta in the western part of Nigeria and was collected at the end of the 19th century by Sir William Macgregor.