68 - Gelede head from the Yoruba people. Nigeria, 20th century.

Gelede head from the Yoruba people. Nigeria, 20th century. Carved and polychrome wood. Measurements: 39 x 20 x 23 cm. Provenance: Estate of Ramon Martí Alsina and Ricard Martí Aguiló. Artistic and heritage collection originating in the legacy of Catalan painters Ramon Martí Alsina (1826–1894), a seminal figure of 19th-century Catalan Realism, and his son Ricard Martí Aguiló (1857–1935). Passed down and enriched across successive generations, the collection brings together works from the original holdings of both artists alongside acquisitions made by their descendants. Dedicated to preserving and recovering the family legacy, the descendants actively reacquired works by the painters as they entered the market, progressively expanding the collection to encompass paintings, sculptures, archaeological artifacts, and other items of artistic and historical significance. A head carved from wood, featuring a stylized central face carved in relief and a bird carved in the round as a finial, holding a thick ribbon in its beak. The Yoruba are an ethno-linguistic group that makes up approximately 30% of Nigeria’s population, though there are also communities in Benin and Togo, and even in the Americas—in Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, North Carolina, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Mexico, Venezuela, and Panama. They have a religious system that has spread throughout the Yoruba diaspora, known as the Osha-Ifa Tradition, which includes numerous myths, songs, stories, and other cultural concepts. Yoruba deities are called Orishas, literally “masters of the head,” with Shango—the god of thunder and ancestor of the Yoruba people themselves—perhaps being the best known.