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.