Altar Stool
Yoruba (Yoruba; Nigeria; Coastal West Africa)
Mid–/late 19th century
- Medium
- Wood and pigment
- Classification
- Furniture
- Dimensions
- 40 × 34.3 cm (15 3/4 × 13 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Nigeria
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Africa
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Jamee and Marshall Field, and Mrs. Stanley M. Freehling; Laura T. Magnuson Endowment
- 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 sculptural tour-de-force, this stool was made for an altar dedicated to the deity Sango. At its center is a Sango priest—identifiable by his double-bladed staff and cape covered in cowrie shells—and a woman who reclines before him in a formal greeting. Moving clockwise, they are encircled by a man playing a drum; two women devotees, one of whom is holding a chicken for sacrifice; a rifle-toting soldier leading a bound captive; and a woman holding a large offering bowl. The motif of the soldier and captive, which also appears on the adjacent Esu dance staff by the same artist [see 1991.396], reflects the violent invasions that marked the era.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
