The Cleveland Museum of Art Special Exhibitions Gallery of Sub-Saharan African Art

  Gallery of Sub-Saharan African Art > Curator's Highlight Tour > Mother-and-Child Caryatid Vessel (agere ifa)
 
 
Image of <I>Mother-and-Child Caryatid Vessel (agere ifa)</I>, mid–late 1800s<br>Nigeria, Southern Ekiti region, Yoruba people <br>Wood <br>Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1994.2
Mother-and-Child Caryatid Vessel (agere ifa), mid–late 1800s
Nigeria, Southern Ekiti region, Yoruba people
Wood
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1994.2

Mother-and-Child Caryatid Vessel (agere ifa)

The mother figure of this caryatid vessel represents a devotee who respectfully kneels before the gods. As in real life, the mother adjusts the child on her back.

The vessel on top of the mother’s head once held the sixteen sacred palm nuts essential to divination rituals, identifying this caryatid figure as one of the implements of a diviner-priest.

This object was used by a priest as a medium to communicate with the god of fate, Orunmila, in order to gain insight into an individual’s destiny.

The carving’s smooth forms and delicate surface detail also function as a tribute to the god. The maternity theme most probably alludes to a woman’s hope to be blessed with pregnancy and the birth of a healthy child.

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