Sacred King from Ife, Nigeria |
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.