Crown (adéńlá)
1900s
- Medium
- Cloth (probably cotton and wool), glass beads, reeds, cardboard, wood, plant fiber, cotton, and quills
- Classification
- Garment
- Dimensions
- Diameter: 26.8 cm (10 9/16 in.); Overall: 105.9 cm (41 11/16 in.); Cone: 35.1 cm (13 13/16 in.); Fringe: 55.3 cm (21 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Yorùbá-style maker
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, African Art
- Credit line
- Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
The most important of all regalia, topped with the "royal bird" Okin, this headdress connects the king to Oduduwa, the mythical founder of the Yoruba. The veil of beaded strings masks the identity of the wearer and protects his subjects from the supernatural powers that radiate from his face. The crown also signifies the "inner head" of the king, the locus of an awesome life force called ase.
