{"id":4866,"title":"Shrine head","medium":"Terracotta","classification":"Sculpture, Ceramics","dimension":"12 1/4 x 5 3/4 x 7 1/4 in. (31.1 x 14.6 x 18.4 cm)","object_name":"Head","continent":"Africa","country":"Nigeria","nationality":"Nigerian","culture":"Ancient Yoruba","dated":"12th-14th century","room":"G250","list":"african-art-highlights","role":"Artist","text":"This head’s tranquil demeanor and introspective gaze express what the Yoruba peoples consider a person’s inner virtue. It is a memorial portrait head that comes from the royal city of Ife in western Nigeria, a center of economic, religious, and political power between 1100 and 1400. Ancient Yoruba artists made heads in bronze and terracotta that were part of complete figures or, like here, freestanding. The vertical lines covering the woman’s face either reflect the traditional scarification designs used in the Ife kingdom or represent the veil worn by members of the royal family.","creditline":"The John R. Van Derlip Fund","accession_number":"95.84","artist":"Yoruba artist","life_date":"Nigeria","department":"Arts of Global Africa","rights_type":"Public Domain","image_width":4561,"image_height":6728,"recent":0,"see_also":[],"sort_number":"95    84","image":"valid","public_access":1,"curator_approved":1,"highlights":0,"Cache_Location":"004000\\800\\60\\4866","Primary_RenditionNumber":"mia_5021120.jpg","Rights_Image_Display":"Full","list:african-art-highlights":true,"related:audio-stops":[{"title":"Ife City, Shrine Head","_id":"4866","objectId":"4866","link":"http://audio-tours.s3.amazonaws.com/p918.mp3","number":"918","type":"audio"}],"related:artstories":[{"title":"Shrine Head","_id":"4866","objectId":"4866","description":"<p>She’s beautiful, of course. You can imagine the glint in her eye, the gleam of her lips, so realistic is this ceramic sculpture from nearly 900 years ago. In fact, in 1911, a German explorer in Africa couldn’t wrap his head around the possibility that Africans created it—it’s so different from the abstract art more typical of the continent—and instead proposed that Greek settlers had made it. We know better now, thanks to archaeology and oral history: royals in the ancient city of Ife, in present-day Nigeria, often hired artists to create life-like portraits like this in clay or bronze of themselves, friends, and family.</p>\n","link":"http://artstories.artsmia.org/#/o/4866","type":"artstory"}],"mtime":"2026-02-04T06:00:50.797Z"}