According to TL analysis, this sitting figure is circa 700 years old; in other words, it is contemporaneous with the wonderfully elegant Ife heads. A similar figure discovered by Fagg is much more realistically and sensitively modelled than this one; today, it features a very smooth surface, the result of constant rubbing with sand for certain ritual purposes - namely, to strengthen the fertility of women. That figure can be clearly classified as Ife, or rather, Ife-style. Stylistic classification of the figure shown here, however, is much more difficult. Though certain smaller features like the ears indicate the Ife style, in general, the figure is highly schematized, which does not fit the Ife mould.
One notable similarity between this work and the one discovered by Fagg, however, is the lack of a foot and both hands. These extremities were not knocked off or otherwise lost; quite to the contrary, it appears as though the figures were intentionally cast without them - especially considering the very smooth, rounded arm and leg stumps. Evidently, the hands and feet were purposely left out of the casting moulds so that something else could be attached to the figures in their stead. But until recently, the question of whether or not the figures were later equipped with hands and feet has been purely a matter of speculation; what's more, no interpretations have as yet been suggested in the literature.
Now, however, a small figure in this exhibition can perhaps shed light on the meaning and function of these two handless, sitting figures.
Cp.:
Frank WILLETT: Ife. Metropole afrikanischer Kunst, Bergisch Gladbach 1967, Tafel 8. |
