Portrait Head with Beard and Modeled Coiffure

Origin: Nok Culture, Nigeria
Composition: terracotta
Age: 500 B.C. - 500 A.D.

The Nok, Sokoto, and Katsina civilizations of Nigeria were agricultural and iron-smelting cultures that flourished from 1000 B.C. – 1000 A.D. Terracotta objects, mostly human figures and heads, have been discovered buried in the ground, and their meaning and function can only be speculated, since neither historical, social, nor political information about these cultures exists.

Nok sculptures have been found on a very large territory and the artistic tradition lasted over one thousand years. However, there is still a strong unity in every Nok piece, and one can immediately recognize the Nok style, which is primarily distinguished by four characteristics: the treatment of the eyes (either semi-circular or triangular, with the eyebrow above balancing the sweep of the lower lid); the piercing of the pupils, nostrils, lips and ears; the careful representation of elaborate hairstyles (with complex constructions of buns, tresses, locks) and jewelry (around the neck, torso, and waist); and the realism in the modeling of the curled lips, the straight nose with flaring nostrils, and the large overhanging forehead (Ref: Bacquart, “Tribal Arts of Africa”; de Grunne, "The Birth of Art in Africa"; Schaedler, “Earth and Ore”).

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