Ise Palace Door (Ilekun aafin)
Olowe of Ise Nigerian
Not on view
Yoruba sovereigns in southwestern Nigeria commissioned regional masters to adorn their palaces with lavish sculptural programs. Among the most celebrated and highly sought out of these individuals to gain acclaim for the depth and dynamism of his distinctive carving style during the late nineteenth century was Olowe of Ise. Olowe filled the surface of this architectural element with six superimposed horizontal registers of frontally facing retainers that surround a European carried in a litter rendered in profile. The right side of this portal, now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, features the Yoruba sovereign who was its patron. Together these two elements of a single palace door commemorate the Arinjale of Ise’s welcoming of Captain Ambrose's British delegation to his court at the beginning of the twentieth century.
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