Horse and Rider

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Horse and Rider

Artist Yoruba Peoples

Place of OriginRepubic of Benin

DateEarly 20th century

DimensionsH. 17 3/4 in. (45.1 cm), W: 7 in. (17.8 cm), L. 15 1/8 in. (38.4 cm).

MediumCarved wood.

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1973.11

Not on View

Label TextIn Yoruba sculpture, images of riders refer to the important role of cavalry in kings’ military campaigns from the 16th through the 18th centuries. In the late 18th and 19th centuries only Yoruba chiefs and their retainers could own and ride horses, but the theme persists as a rich metaphor for ideas about status, control, and access to supernatural powers. Some Yoruba gods are represented through riding metaphors, such as Shango, the God of Thunder and Lightning, who “rides fire like a horse.” Ogun, God of Iron and Warfare, is also implicit to equestrian images associated with warfare.Published References

"African Art," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 16, no. 2, 1973, p. 36, repr. fig. 8.

"Recent Accessions," Art Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 1, Spring 1974, p. 99, repr. p. 107.

Roberts, Mary Nooter, Facing Africa: The African Art Collection of the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1998, pp. 42-43, repr. (col.).

Comparative ReferencesSee also Willett, Frank, African Art, An Introduction, New York, Praeger, 1971, p. 151, illus. 140, 141.

cf. Trowell, Margaret adn Hans Nevermann, African and Oceanic Art, New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1968, pp. 115-117 (ill.).