Yoruba Male and Female Shrine Figures, Nigeria

Merton D. Simpson, New York
Nancy and Richard Bloch, Rancho Santa Fe, acquired from the above on August 12, 1977

Los Angeles County Museum of Art - LACMA, Los Angeles, Homage to Nigeria, October 1981 - April 1, 1982
Los Angeles County Museum of Art - LACMA, Los Angeles, Male and Female: The Couple in African Sculpture, March 23 - October 2, 1983
National Museum of African Art - Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa, October 25, 1989 - September 3, 1990

Herbert M. Cole, Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa, Washington, 1989, p. 73, fig. 78
Warren M. Robbins and Nancy I. Nooter, African Art in American Collections. Survey 1989, Washington, 1989, p. 237, fig. 607 (male figure)
National Museum of African Art - Smithsonian Institution (ed.), Calendar of Exhibitions and Programs, Washington, Winter 1990
George Chemeche, The Horse Rider in African Art, Woodbridge, 2011, p. 132 (male figure)

Very good condition overall for objects of this type and age. Female figure: vertical age cracks through base, proper right side of skirt, proper right forearm, and proper right side of face, as seen in photographs. Small age crack through reverse of base. Small holes at both corners of each eye, presumably for the original attachment of metal inlay. Nicks and scratches, wear and tear consistent with age and use. Surface with traces of kaolin and blue pigment, partially removed. Dark stain around mouth, as seen in photographs. Permanently mounted on base with two screws. The infant figure with two glass beaded necklaces. Male figure: vertical age cracks through proper right side of base, horse, and where spear meets the heel of the diminuative frontal figure, as well as hairline cracks through proper left base, proper right side of figure, and proper left side of cap. Small holes at both corners of each eye, presumably for the original attachment of metal inlay. Nicks and scratches, wear and tear consistent with age and use. Surface with traces of kaolin and blue pigment, partially removed. Dark stain around mouth of horserider, as well as the mouth and top of head of the diminuative figure, as seen in photographs. Mounted on base with two removeable screws. Glass beaded necklace on main figure.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The pair of monumental shrine figures from the collection of Nancy and Richard Bloch are tour-de-force examples of Yoruba carving technique. They are distinguished by the highly expressive features as well as their beautiful honey golden patina. For a related pair of a horserider and mother-and-child figure, also from an Erinle shrine in the Yoruba town of Ilobu, see Christie's Paris, December 13, 2011, lot 278.

Pair of Yoruba Shrine Sculptures

These splendid Yoruba shrine sculptures were probably carved in Ilobu by an artist from the circle of Toibo of Erin, son of Maku. They were most likely placed on a shrine for orisha Erinle in Ilobu or a neighboring town on the northern forest edge of the area known as Oyo in Western Nigeria.

In the early 1950s Ulli Beier, a preceptor at the University of Ibadan, traveled widely in southwestern Yorubaland.  As he became fluent in the Yoruba language, he was fascinated with the myths, rituals, and festivals through which the Yoruba gave expression to a complex and  insightful cosmology.  As a professor of literary and visual art he was enchanted by the oral literature, oriki, sung in the celebration of persons, places, and gods, and the rich imagination and skill with which an abundance of shrine sculpture was created.  In 1957 Beier published two essays in special editions of Nigeria Magazine.  The first, entitled, "The Story of Sacred Wood Carvings From One Small Yoruba Town," and the second, "A Year of Sacred Festivals in One Yoruba Town."  The town was Ilobu in the Ilesha area, located a few miles north of Oshogbo, near Erin and Ede, and south of the Igbomina crowned town of Ila-Orangun.  The village of Erin was well known for the sculptures of the master carver, Maku, his son, Toibo, and others who were affiliated with them.  The palace of the Timi of Ede with its famous shrine to orisha Ogun, deity of iron and war, had thirty or forty shrine sculptures carved by carvers from Oshogbo, Ibadan, Ilobu, Erin, Ila-Orangun, and many other towns and villages.  Particular carvings were often acquired for a shrine on the instruction of Ifa divination, at times requiring the devotee to journey to a neighboring town seeking a carver who was well known for his skill and knowledge in creating appropriate sculptures for a particular orisa or the headdress for an ancestral masquerade. Other sculptures might be inherited from a deceased family member, in particular a parent of deceased twins or one who was a devotee of a particular orisha.

The pair of shrine sculptures from the collection of Nancy and Richard Bloch is strikingly similar to a pair of a female figure holding a bowl and a male horserider photographed by Beier in Ilobu on the Akinbi shrine in honor of orisha Erinle (Beier 1957a: plate 15).  The iconography and carving details of the female figure are so close that it seems plausible to assume these are works by the same hand.  Beier does not identify the carver of these sculptures, nor does he suggest a date of manufacture.  Another photograph Beier took in Erin shows the Abgandada shrine and in it a pair of shrine figures by Toibo, son of Maku (d. 1937). While these sculptures are very similar to the Bloch figures, too, there are also differences.  It could be possible that the Bloch figures are works by Toibo himself but they are definitively works by an artist who worked closely with him.

Erinle is said to have been a famous hunter of elephants who had led the Lorosin, the first king of the Ilobu people, to the site of the present town–a site rich with fine soil near the flowing waters of a river now called Erinle River.  Orisha Erinle lived with the people of Ilobu and is remembered for his mighty deeds in defending the town.  At length Erinle left the king and people of Ilobu and sank into the river making his home at a place called Igboorisa, "the grove of the orisha."

Erinle's principal shrine is in the courtyard of the palace, and, according to Beier, there is scarcely a compound in Ilobu without a shrine for Erinle.  At the time of the annual festival women will chant oriki, "praise songs" or "attributive names" in honor of the orisha.

He is firm and strong like an ancient rock.
He is clear like the eye of God that does not grow grass.
Like the earth he will never change.
He puts out the lamp and lets his eye sparkle like fire.
He will turn the barren woman into one who carries a child.
He is the father of our king; he is the one who looks after my child.
From the depth of the river he is calling us to war.
In the bush and in the thick forest he finds his food.
He treads on dangerous paths but his foot does not hesitate.
He can destroy like worms in the stomach.
The confused head he will cure.
He mixes the heads of vultures with the heads of other birds.
The antelope cannot move.
The bush cow is spell bound.
He will not be friendly with the leopard, except for his spotted ear.              

Shrine sculptures for the orisha are visual metaphors.  They are not objects of devotion or thought of as sacred or spiritually powerful.  Rather, they are images of devotees, of those who possess within their lives the power, ashe, or "spiritual authority," ori inu, of the orisha.  The female figure carries a child on her back and holds an offering calabash below her full breasts, a gift for the power who gave her the gift of a child.  The child is bound to her with her wrapper, its arms suspended with ease and confidence at the sides.  The equestrian figure holds the reins of his steed and grasps a spear with his right hand.  A knife is strapped to his leg.  "He is firm and strong like an ancient rock."  His servant stands at the front of the saddle searching the path to be certain that the way is clear and another stands at his back, holding on to the arms of the rider.  The woman's hair and the rider's "dog-eared hat," abatiaja, are painted with indigo dye.   Both feature a pigtail, decorated with six descending triangles echoing the inverted Islamic triangular amulet, tiara, suspended from their necks.

The carvings have been smeared with chalk, efun, indicating that Erinle is among the orishafunfun, the deities of whiteness, such as Obatala, creator of human beings, Oshun, goddess of birth and woman's beauty, and orisha Oko, Lord of the farm.  Erinle may be involved in blood shed in the hunt and in battle, but he is essentially viewed as a deity of life sustaining actions:  killing in the quest for food and the defense of community.  As with humans, the Yoruba orisha are deeply ambiguous figures, endowed with remarkable creativity capacity, but capable of violent behavior.

John Pemberton III
Crosby Professor of Religion, Emeritus
Amherst College, March 2012