Diving Deep into African Arts - Essay Example

Stools are sculptured to different sizes, some almost the same size of the individuals they are idealizing. In Ife, they are mostly in towns, near the King’s palace, and in their original place of origin. The sculptures are curved using different materials with the most curving in the form of naturalistic style made from terracotta, which had varied body work. Most of the sculptures are carved to represent some personalities like act gods, an example is the Ogun, which represents the god of iron and war.

These sculptures in Ife existed before the time of colonization, and it continued during colonization and even flourished after European colonial. The sculptors of these sculptures are not known, although it speculates that they were curved by the ancestors, although the key questions still remain with the Historians. The terracotta work of sculpture in Ife is always associated with shrines, although, in other parts, it is used for rituals making it difficult to define the exact original function of this sculpture (Fred S.

Kleiner 145). It is believed that some are used for rituals especially the one depicting animals images. The naturalistic and humanlike sculptures that include figures representing idealized royalty and images of ancestors were developed in terracotta and taken to other media centres. These sculptures are carved using different objects to represent different parts of the body; copper and brass are mainly used for head, and the rest of the body is made of clay works. It is mainly done by women and men sculpt using stones, metals or woods.