FAA/22/6002

NAME: ADEOTI JOSHUA ADEMOLA

MATRIC NUMBER: FAA/22/6002

CARRYOVER: 300 LEVEL 

               HISTORY OF NIGERIAN ARTISTIC HERITAGE

Bronze Casting

The bronzes are referred to as the Tsoede bronzes because oral tradition says that the

founder of the Nupe Kingdom, King Tsoede, who escaped from Idah in a bronze canoe,

distributed these bronzes on his way to founding the present Nupe Kingdom which is believed

to date from the sixteenth century.

Forms and Content:

The bronzes are divided into four groups. The first consists of the so-called Gara figures, two

on Jebba Island, a male and a female, and one in Tada. The second group consists of only the

seated figure shown here, perhaps the most important naturalistic sculpture in Black Africa.

Two other more recent-looking figures make up the third group, while the figures of two

ostriches and an elephant form the fourth group.

The male Jebba Gara figure better known as the Jebba Bowman and the Tada Gara male figure

are believed to bear resemblance to Benin works because of the diadems on their foreheads

which depict faces with snakes issuing from their nostrils, a common feature in Benin works.

The Tada seated figure seems, in its naturalism and rigidity, to belong to the Ife school.

The two more recent looking figures from Tada have a combination of Yoruba and Benin traits