Galerie Peter Herrmann

	Ancient Art from Africa - Ife

The convincingly-elaborated realism of this 700-year-old mask is remarkable. From the eyes and the mouth to the nose and the coiled auricles, all features indicate that this object was based on a real person. But if one compares several Ife-style heads and masks, one will be struck by their relative similarity, and thus it would be wise to assume that this mask, too, is an idealisation - albeit most likely of a real figure.

The mask probably once looked different than pictured here. Presumably, hair, a beard, pearls and headdress once hung from the holes on the forehead and around the mouth. Its former appearance and exact identification can, however, no longer be reconstructed. Usually, it is assumed that such masks depict a king of Ife (an Oni). And indeed, Ife expert Frank Willett has hypothesised that a very similar object is a portrait of Obalufons II, the third Oni of Ife, to whom the inauguration of the cast bronze tradition is attributed.

Cp.:
Stefan EISENHOFER: Rätselhafte Meisterwerke. Die Kunst aus Ife, in: Ife, Akan und Benin. Westafrikanische Kunst aus 2000 Jahren, Pforzheim 2000, S. 20/ 21.
Frank WILLETT: Ife. Metropole afrikanischer Kunst, Bergisch Gladbach 1967, S. 33.
Ekpo EYO, Frank Willett: Kunstschätze aus Alt-Nigeria, Mainz 1983, S. 99.