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A cast bronze head in the exhibition represents Olokun, the goddess of the sea, associated with beads and wealth (cat. no. 16).'0 Ancient bead-making crucibles show the remains of red, blue, and green glass (see cat. nos. 17-20). Beads were also made of shells and stones (see cat. nos. 21-26), and some of these—the cowries—may have been imported from as far away as the Indian Ocean. Necklaces, bracelets, and anklets of beads are visible on many of the fragments of Ife terra-cotta figures (see cat. nos. 4 and 30-35)and on the three full-figure copper-alloy sculptures. The most spectacular object found outside Ile-Ife that bears a clear relationship to works from there is the seated figure from the Niger River site ofTada, north of Ile-Ife (cat. no. 36). This large copper-alloy statue was found in a shrine which was still in active use in the twentieth century. This Tada figure is said to be one of ten that were brought to the banks of the Niger River by the Nupe founder-hero Tsoede in the fifteenth, or possibly sixteenth, century (another is cat. no. 107). Whether he brought it directly from Ile-Ife or from Idah (the capital of the Igala people, and another important metal casting center) is not known. Unusual in its size and asymmetrical pose, the seated Tada figure is thought by many people to have been made by the same artist or workshop that produced the Ife copper-alloy heads and the Obalufon mask. The calm expression on the face and the somewhat paunchy body,as well as the textile wrapper tied on the left hip, are details that are similar to those seen on the Ife copper-alloy, stone, and terra-cotta figures. It is a unique masterpiece of casting, hollow on the inside and possibly cast in several separate pourings. The location of the Nupe kingdom on the bank of the Niger River made this site an important trading center that would have linked the people of Ife to the regions north of them.
LOST-WAX CASTING Although there is a certain amount of
or with a latex made from a cactus,
clay is applied directly to the wax surface,
debate about where exactly West Africa's
Euphorbia kamerunica. Delicate details
and a heavier layer ofclay goes over that.
metal working technology originated,
that the artist wants to appear in the final
When the clay is dry, the entire mold is
it is well known that there were several
casting are made on the wax. If the main
then baked in a fire to melt the wax,
iron-working sites and copper-mining
body of the sculpture includes any delicate
leaving only the fire-baked clay shell.
operations in West Africa in the first
elements that project out from it, wires
The molten metal, heated to the same
millennium B.C.E. All the Ife copper-
or iron rods may be inserted into the core
temperature as the clay, is poured into
alloy sculptures were made by the
and then molded over with wax to produce
the cavity left by the melting of the wax,
process known as lost-wax casting, the
those elements.
and is then left to cool and harden.
same technique used in Igbo-Ukwu in
The next stage is the encasement of
After that has occurred, the day mold is
the ninth and tenth centuries C.E.(see
the wax-covered core in clay. Iron pegs
removed and the iron pegs and jets are
cat. nos. 100 and 101), though with some
may be inserted through the wax into the
cut off with a chisel.
variations. An artist using this process
core to allow air to escape from it during
starts with a real object or a clay model,
casting. The jets formed by this process
which serves as the "core" of the final
lead into a wax cup at the top of the iron
sculpture (to be replicated in metal).
pegs into which metal will be poured.
The core is then coated with beeswax
Next, a layer of delicate fine-grained
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[Adapted from Frank Willett, Ile in the History of West African Sculpture(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967), p. 52ffl