Osun, deessa de l'aigua dolça i els rius, acompanyada d'assistents

This sculpture could be attributed to Olowe of Ise, a famous Yoruba sculptor from the Nigerian city of Ise-Ekiti. After living as a servant in the royal palace, Olowe gradually gained great notoriety as an artist until becoming known in Europe in 1924, when the British Empire Exhibition showed the wooden doors that he had sculpted for the Ikerre palace. From that time on, Olowe began to travel regularly to work on various major commissions around Nigeria. Olowe¿s works are characterised for having a unique and personal style. In this piece we can see these stylistic peculiarities, such as the angular faces, the virtuosity, the volumes in high relief, the high hairstyles, the figures as a whole full of vivacity, grouped together asymmetrically yet balanced, or, above all, the expressivity of the two female figures dancing beside a musician playing a percussion instrument. In these types of works, the presence of fans usually symbolises Osun, the goddess of freshwater and rivers, very well-known and venerated in the regions of Osun and Ekiti. It is believed that the sculpture was dedicated to an important figure, who may have been a leader or oba, or even a priestess from the region of Osun. At the same time, the green colour of the figure, which is often associated with the ceremonies of divination of the Yoruba, could either have been applied by Olowe, who in earlier works had used plant-based inks, or by the owner who acquired the piece between 1926 and 1931, the Spanish governor of Equatorial Guinea Miguel Núñez de Prado.