Description:
conical beaded crown with row of four faces below two faces, large bird on top with two smaller birds on either side, long bead strings around base of crown, top section in diamond pattern with long "streamers" of beads
Label Text:
Many skilled Yoruba artists work with seed beads to create crowns, footstools, and other royal regalia. A few features are requisite in the creation of the great crown, adenla: the conical shape, the veil of beads hiding the face of the person who wears the crown, an abstract face or faces on the conical portion, and a single bird or cluster of birds at the peak; if the artist chooses, birds can be placed along the sides of the crown. Otherwise, the artist is free to design a crown that is a visual spectacle celebrating the king’s authority (ase) and demonstrates the artistic imagination and technical skill of the bead worker.
The recurring patterns on this crown suggest the hand of a master artist. The multiple colors and the openwork pattern of the veil make it difficult to see the face of the person wearing the crown. Curiously, the interlace pattern associated with royalty is not found on this crown. The six embossed faces here are strikingly similar in their basic geometric design, composed of parallel lines of beads set at different angles. Nonetheless, each face is distinguished by the colors and bead patterns separating one from another. The effect is visual uncertainty about what one is seeing, especially because, as the beads catch the sunlight, their luminous qualities change before one’s eyes. There is the suggestion that an oba can see in many directions, that his vision transcends that of ordinary mortals.
This crown was once in the collection of the Olokuku of Okuku, which Ulli Beier celebrated in Yoruba Beaded Crowns: Sacred Regalia of the Olokuku of Okuku based on his extensive interviews with Oba Olaosebikan Oyewusi II, who reigned from 1961 to 1981.1 The crown is called Soludero, which means “Bring Peace.” It was made for Oba Edun, the tenth Oloku, who reigned in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. At some point it was damaged, and Edun’s successor, Oba Oyekunle, had it repaired. “Edun” refers to the spot-nosed monkey who is associated with twins (ibeji). The Yoruba have the highest rate of twin births in the world. They are thought of as possessing spiritual powers, being extraordinarily independent, and capable of bringing blessings to the family if properly cared for in life and in death. It is rare, but not unknown, for an oba to be a twin, and it would certainly be thought that such a person would bring wealth and good fortune to a community.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2002.7 |
