Denver Art Museum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Denver Art Museum - Essay Example carved vest, flywhisk and the missing tooth possibly lost in battle- also has a protruding beard and a raised mouth with front which all seek to highlight his towering stature. Together with his smaller sized horse, he is balanced by a figure of woman having succulent breasts and an undulating torso creating a wave like motion, with two attendants besides her carrying what appears as gunpowder on their heads, creating a sense of mutual support and unity in the art work. The female similarly wears an upswept incised coiffure that rhymes well with that of the horse rider who has been propped up. Besides all figures in the sculpture have elongated necks and oval heads, bringing out a sense resemblance of smaller and larger parts of the art that is important for unity. The sculpture’s frontal angles of the upper and lower regiment have been turned creating a variety of symbolism that can be read from all sides. The fantastic, dreamlike quality of the work produced by Olowe, a Yoruba by birth, can only be attributed to the long history and experience of the Yoruba people that inhabit the west coast of Africa in Nigeria, Eastern republic of Benin and Togo, dating back to the 5th century BC (Drewal, Pemberton and Abiodan 50). Their early discovery of iron enabled them to develop better metallic tools such as axes and machetes that helped them a lot in wood carving, besides many other economic activities including agriculture and trade. They went further to develop their pottery, textile and leather work. The community grew quite a lot, that at some point they had 20 kingdoms, each with its own king and a strong military who were revered and governed the people. One of their strongest kingdoms had as much as 6, 600 towns and villages that it controlled by the end of the 18th century. The kingdoms had Ife as the cultural and religious center. The Yoruba’s religious believes centered on a view of the world as made up of two connected realms; the visible world of