Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria

Wunmonije Compound, Ife, Head with Crown, 14th-early 15th century, C.E. Copper alloy. Fundación Marcelino Botín/Museum for Africa

Technically and visually the artworks of ancient Ife, the ancient Yoruba city state, are among the most remarkable in the world, including near life-size heads and figures of humans in terra cotta and bronze, some cast of nearly pure copper.

Dynasty and Divinity: Ife in Ancient Nigeria features the artistic accomplishments of this unique 12th- to 15th-century civilization in what is today southwestern Nigeria, and examines how factors of dynastic power and divine authority shaped the exceptional arts from Ife.

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