Tapper (Iroke Ifa)
Yoruba (Owo region, Nigeria; Coastal West Africa)
17th or 18th century
- Medium
- Ivory
- Classification
- Religious/Ritual Object
- Dimensions
- 47 × 5.1 × 7.7 cm (18 1/2 × 2 × 3 in.)
- Culture
- Nigeria
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Africa
- Credit line
- Gift of Richard Faletti, the Faletti Family Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
A Yoruba diviner strikes a tapper against his tray to call the deity of fate, Orunmila, to the proceedings. The middle section of this ivory tapper depicts a kneeling hunter who clutches a bow and arrow in his right hand and a large crocodile in his left.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
