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Civilizations & Empires

Ife and its bronze heads

c. 1200 – 1500 CE (artistic flowering)

West Africa (Ile-Ife, southwestern Nigeria)

The Yoruba city of Ife produced naturalistic copper-alloy and terracotta heads, chiefly c. 12th-15th centuries. Finds such as the 1938 Wunmonije heads overturned European assumptions about African art.

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Brass commemorative head from the Benin Kingdom, Nigeria, c. 1500s-1600s; Benin tradition says brass casting came from Ife
Credit: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1938.6. License: CC0 (Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access).

Content pending: verified research needed.

Related entries

Sources

  1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, "Ife (from ca. 6th Century)" (Scholarly)
  2. British Museum, "Cast sculpture (head), CRS.3" (collection record) (Primary source)
  3. Eric García, National Geographic, "Nigeria's ancient royal portraits challenged European biases toward African art" (2021) (Reference)

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