Ile-Ife Art

Sacred King from Ife, Nigeria

     A new naturalistic style appeared in the 11th and 12th centuries in a place 200 miles west of Igbo Ukwo, in a place called Ile-Ife. Ile-Ife was considered to be a foundation of the Yoruba civilization. One of the most famous works from Ife is the sacred king, which is a zinc-brass alloy figure. It is a clear representation of some sort of ruler. It is unlike many of the ancient African sculptures because they were normally made of wood. Also, it varies from other African figures because it shows skin modeling on the stomach and the ideal naturalism in the face. This naturalism consisted of focus on natural detail and expressing humans in their prim form as young adults while maintaining appropriate facial features. The proportions of the body parts is "idealized" not realistic. It represents an emphasis on the large head and the exaggerated belly. Also, there is extreme decoration on the jewelry that is present upon the king. There is a beaded necklace which lays upon another striped collar. There is also a piece of cloth that goes down to the middle of the stomach with two bow ties knots. The figure is also holding two tools which seem to be sculpting tools for carving. The figure is also wearing a short, skirt-like cloth on his legs with a rope that reaches down from the neck and crosses over the skirt. This figure, as well as many of the Yoruba figures, was used for rituals of celebrating sacred kingship.

     The creations of the time of Ife were created from many materials such as bronze, brass copper, wood, ceramics, and ivory. The usual portrayals of the time were representations of the kings. The people stressed an importance of a ruler and ruler worship. Also, like the art of Nok, the sculptors of Ife created life-sized figures of heads. These were normally made up of wood or bronze, and in rare cases, an alloy. Commonly, figures were heavily beaded and covered in immense amounts of jewelry like in the figure of the Sacred King. The arts of ancient eastern Africa overlap in various civilizations. The Nok and Ife civilizations both created images that shared many similar characteristics. The representation of human images seems to be common in the cultures of Africa. Where these figures differ is in their stylistic ideas. The Ife culture really emphasizes the naturalistic style. Creating a seemingly prime image while also showing naturally occurring human qualities. The Ife cultures's figures seemed to be representations of younger humans in their stride of youth but they are also showed with unique facial qualities. However, blemishes and imperfect facial forms were not portrayed on these figures.
   
     The art of the Ife civilization focused on naturalism in art and representing powerful leaders and kings. This focus on king worship lead to magnificent king figures dressed in astonishing jewelry and elaborate clothing. The Ife style is truly an amazing technique of creating beautiful sculptures that showed perfect form of the human figure.
   

Nok Art

 Ancient African art traces its lineage to a culture that consisted of dispersed sites that covered the land south of the Sahara, mainly in Nigeria. Together, these places cam to be known as the Nok culture, but these places were most likely not connected or unified in any way. The art pf the Nok culture dates back to the time between 500 BCE and 200 BCE. The way that we were found the artwork of the time is quite amusing, it was all by accident. Tin miners were mining the ground and came across various Nok-style human heads, animal heads, body parts, and an array of varying figures. However, since the unintentional discoveries, many purposeful excavations were carried out to search for Nok art. The most famous of the styles of Nok artwork, is their classic terracotta heads and figures. There are various noticeable stylistic features that define these sculptures

Classic Nok culture terracotta head

as true pieces of Nok art. These include a clear facial expression, large eyes, and parted lips. The reason for the gaps in the eyes, nostrils, and mouth was so that the heat would be equally spread during the firing process. The sculptures had an understanding of this firing technique and so they punctured holes in the appropriate spaces. Also, there are various designs on the face that help us to comprehend that this is Nok art. Incised grooves, triangular eyes, raised eyebrows, and the defined jaw line were all styles placed upon the heads by Nok artists. Some of the most detailed pieces of the figures are the advanced hairstyles and jewelry being worn around the neck. All of the heads and complete figures have no specified gender. Also, researchers do not know what purpose these figures have but it is more than likely for a ritual practice.


     These figures were vary advanced for their times. They were hollow, coil built (method of pottery), life sized, and are depicted in various postures. They were created from a combination of local gravels and clay. The skills of the sculptors are ascribed to be the reason why these figures are still intact today.  These figures were actually first unearthed in 1928 near the Jos Plateau region. Two main sites that contained major amounts of Nok heads and arts are Samun Dukiya and Taruga. Radiocarbon dating and thermo-luminescence tests dated art from these sites to be over 2000 years old, which makes them some of the oldest artworks in African history. There are also dense clusters of Nok art in places like Kafanchan and Kagarko. It is very important to understand that these heads once belonged to full sculptures of life-sized figures but over time, after erosion, they broke off and were separated. The long process of erosion left the figures with a grainy texture that created a rough surface as opposed to the original smoothness of the fresh terracotta.

     The terracotta heads are the true stamp of the art of the Nok culture. there were many defining factors that were put together to create these true masterpieces of the ancient east African world.
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