Crowned Head with Plaited Crest, Ife Style

Serene, idealised portraits rendered with striking naturalism — fine facial striations, calm almond eyes and full lips — evoking the classical sculpture of ancient Ife.

Bronze has long been the language of power in West Africa. Cast by the lost-wax method — in which a model shaped in wax is encased in clay and replaced by molten metal — these works preserve with remarkable fidelity the faces, regalia and ceremonies of the courts that commissioned them.

A royal head wears an elegant crown with a flared visor and a cross-hatched rear flap, from which rises a tall plaited crest topped by a bulbous finial and set at its base with a rosette.

The serene face is covered with fine parallel striations, a classic feature of Ife portraiture, with gently lidded eyes and sensitively modelled lips. The tall ringed neck is pierced with a small opening. The reverse reveals the hollow casting and the thinness of the bronze walls.