Art and Oracle: A Scholarly Resource of African and Rituals of Divination | Explore & Learn

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44. Door Panel: Birds and Divination Tray (Ilekun)
Olowe of Ise (ca. 1873–ca. 1938)
Yoruba, Nigeria
Wood; 194.3 x 65.5 cm (76 1/2 x 25 3/4 in.)
Late 19th–early 20th century
Rolf and Christine Miehler Collection, Munich

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44. Door Panel: Birds and Divination Tray
Olowe of Ise (ca. 1873–ca. 1938)

Carved by the most celebrated Yoruba sculptor of the last hundred years, this architectural panel stands as a spectacular tribute to the diviner's profession and a celebration of the pervasive importance of his insights. The imagery suggests that it was originally designed for the entryway of an Ifa meetinghouse or for the court within a Yoruba palace where the king's Ifa priests divined on his behalf.1

In either case, its masterful composition and the intricate level of detail displayed in the carving would have represented a costly commission. Sought out by Yoruba princes of his day, Olowe was renowned for programs of architectural sculpture at the palaces of Akure, Ikere, Ise, and Owo. Born about 1873 in Efon-Alaye, Olowe moved during his youth to Ise, where his carving skills were employed at the palace of the Arinjale, launching a successful career.2 He became known for his skill in breaking free from traditional pictorial conventions through his dynamic compositions, in which the subjects extend out into the viewer's space in unusually high relief. In the work shown here, Olowe has employed the visual vocabulary of divination to transform a utilitarian door panel into a commentary on the infinite reach of Ifa's influence. The composition is symmetrical, with a divination tray of relatively modest scale depicted in a square at the middle, flanked above and below by "birds of Ifa," a motif that pervades the iconography of divination paraphernalia. Through this flock of birds gathered next to the tray as if poised to fly away, Olowe gives eloquent expression to the centrality of Ifa in Yoruba experience and its unparalleled ability to transcend physical limitations. The long rectangular format suggests that this was the left-hand panel of a two-panel door.

The smooth, unadorned surface of the divination tray's central area, on which the Ifa priest traces the patterns of the odu (see cat. no. 13), stands out as the only area of the entire panel not filled with figurative elements, suggesting the open-ended possibilities of the divination process. Each side of the tray's elaborately decorated border curves inward from the edges of the square in which it is inscribed, in an exaggeration of the distinctive contours of a board form from the Ekiti region. A large zigzag serpent motif occupies the space between each curved border section and a side of the square. The border is filled with parallel rows of a smaller zigzag motif, punctuated by the image of a face in the middle of each section.

The "birds of Ifa" appear to converge on the tray as if in a flock, in three rows above the tray and three rows below it. The birds in the rows closest to the tray face toward it, while the birds in the other rows face one another. They are carved as if viewed from above, in such high relief that they cast shadows on the tray's surface. The vantage point gives us a full view of their backs, with their wings extended, and a great deal of care has been given to rendering their plumage as incised striations, with an echo of the zigzag motif in the middle row of birds. This choice of perspective maximizes their surface area, allowing Olowe to exploit the artistic possibilities of texture. The complex treatment of the surface and the high degree of relief endow the representation with a vividness and vitality typical of the oeuvre of Olowe of Ise.

The aesthetic power of the arrangement is further enhanced by the visual commentary it provides. The Ifa board serves as a vehicle for communication and as a template upon which divine wisdom may be conveyed. (See part 4 of the Pemberton essay.) This process is facilitated both by the snakes, which serve as messengers between humans and the spirit world, and by Esu (also called Elegba)—the god whose face appears in the border on each side of the tray—who transforms the sacrifices made by humans into food for the gods. These exchanges between humankind and Orunmila, the god of divine insight, are witnessed by the gathering of birds.

1. Roslyn Adele Walker, Olowe of Ise: A Yoruba Sculptor to Kings, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1998), p. 52.

2. Yoruba Art and Aesthetics 1991, p. 39.