Artist: Attributed to Areogun of Osi-Ilorin (1880-1954)
Yoruba peoples, Ekiti region, Nigeria
Early 19th to mid-20th century
Wood, pigment, iron
41 x 27 x 29.5 cm (16 1/8 x 10 5/8 x 11 5/8 in.)
2005-6-68, gift of Walt Disney World Co., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (cat. no. 14)
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Areogun was a prolific artist and carved many doors, house posts, masks and lidded bowls. This lidded bowl is typical of Areogun's best work-including the low-relief figures arranged in an orderly, tight composition. Several of the figures and attributes on the bowl suggest an association with Shango, god of thunder. Other images recall Eshu, the divine messenger and trickster, and Ogun, god of iron.
The spherical form and the lid's arches pierced by an iron spike suggest the Yoruba cosmos-a universe where change and transformation and interdependence and interaction are ever present.
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