Ancestral Post

Most of the African master carvers remain unidentified. But some artists are known, and are still remembered and celebrated today. Agbonbiofe, a member of the famous Adeshina carver family, is one of them. He made this post for a Yoruba royal palace, where it supported the roof of a veranda lining the king’s reception courtyard. The two-tiered composition depicts a mounted king wearing a conical crown like the one on view nearby and a kneeling female figure that supports and sustains the king.