Buste – Terracotta – IFE – Benin

Old terracotta buste from the IFE of Benin. It undoubtedly represents a dignitary. The prosperity of Ife allowed the development of an unparalleled art that would have been born in the terracotta and later transformed into the metal.

Ife, the capital and religious center of Southwest Nigeria, was one of the first Sub-Saharan cities to emerge at the end of the first millennium AD. A substantial number of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic sculptures, made most frequently in terracotta although brass was also employed, were produced in the region between the 11th and the 15th centuries. This distinctive style is broadly referred to as “Ife”, even though some examples may come from other cities such as Owo.

Provenance: former private collection from the Netherlands.