The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Dark brown wood headdress with chipped white and black paint. At the base, a squat face constructed from geometric shapes supports a platform on its head at the center of which is an angular horse flanked by smaller human figures, stacked on top of one another. On the back of the horse sits the largest human figure with a geometrically patterned ring curving under their chin and up to a wide-rimmed hat with tassels.

Headdress (Ẹpa) called Atófòjọ́wò (“You Can Look at It for a Whole Day”)

1920–30

Moshood Olusomo Bámigbóyè

(Nigerian, c. 1885–1975)
Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Yorùbá peoples
Wood and paint
Overall: 134 x 57.9 x 62.5 cm (52 3/4 x 22 13/16 x 24 5/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund and Gift of Mary Price 1991.165
Location: 001A ArtLens Exhibition

Did You Know?

Performing this Ẹpa mask was an impressive feat of strength; it weighs nearly 45 pounds!

Description

Carved from a single block of wood, this stunning example of Bámigbóyè's complex style was carved when the artist was in his late twenties while living in Omu in his native Ilorin Province. Ẹpa masks were performed during an annual or biannual week-long festival. This mask appeared at the festival’s climactic conclusion. The elaborate superstructure revolves around the figure of a richly adorned ruler on horseback carrying a sword and wearing protective amulets on his arms. Three tiers of surrounding small-scale attendants—including messengers, musicians, warriors, and praise singers—represent a scene of court life in miniature, and testify to the warrior-king’s power and prestige.
  • The object is largely carved from a single piece of wood, which shows characteristic radial cracking toward the base as would be expected for a wooden object of this age and size. On either side, two smaller figures carrying fans in the uppermost register are carved separately and attached with nails. These openings would have allowed greater flexibility in carving the interior figure. The spacing between the figures on all registers is just enough to allow a hand to pass through. The pigments present have been studied by conservators and scientists at the Yale University Art Gallery as part of the exhibition Bámigbóyè: A Master Sculptor of the Yorùbá Tradition, and preliminary results are published in the accompanying catalogue. Analysis of the white paint points to the use of clay, possibly kaolin; the black paint includes a charred vegetal material, and analytical results for the red, brown, and yellow paints are typical of naturally occurring earth pigments.
  • 1945–?
    Leon Underwood (also known as George Claude Leon Underwood, 1890–1970) by purchase from the artist Moshood Olusomo Bámigbóyè
    By at least 1958
    Vincent Price
    ?–1991
    Mary Grant Price
    1991–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH by gift and partial purchase from R. M. Light and Co., Inc.
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 "Bamboya [sic, Bamigboye], the Yoruba carver of Omu, Ilorin, province of Nigeria, who carved the Elepa [sic, Epa] mask in Plate 27...He produced this mask and many other fine works over thirty years ago when he did not know he was an artist." "In possession of the author." Underwood, Leon. 1948. Masks of West Africa. London: A. Tiranti. Plate 27, pp. 13–16, 36–37, 46
    2 Reproduced in 1958 Fagg/Elisofon book The Sculpture of Africa as figure 144.
  • Green, James, et al. Bámigbóyè : A Master Sculptor of the Yorùbá Tradition. Yale University Art Gallery, 2022. p. 115-118
    Underwood, Leon. 1948. Masks of West Africa. London: A. Tiranti. Plate 27, pp. 13–16, 36–37, 46
    John Pemberton III et. al. The Horse Rider in African Art (London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2011), pg. 186.
    The Brooklyn Museum. Masterpieces of African Art. Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Institute of Arts & Sciences, 1954. P. 102
    Robbins, Warren M. African Art in American Collections: L'art Africain Dans Les Collections Americaines. New York: F.A. Praeger, 1966 P. 164
    Trowell, Margaret, Hans Nevermann, and Hans Nevermann. African and Oceanic Art. Panorama of World Art. New York: H.N. Abrams. 1968 Reproduced: p. 87
    "Front Matter." African Arts 6, no. 1 (Autumn 1972): Reproduced: inner front cover. www-jstor-org.ingallslibrary.idm.oclc.org
    Turner, Evan H. "Selected 1991 Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 2 (1992): 63-83. Mentioned: p. 65, 83; Reproduced: p. 75 www.jstor.org
    Chemeche, George, and John Pemberton. The Horse Rider in African Art. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 2011. Reproduced: p. 106
    Lawal, Babatunde. Yoruba. Milan, Italy: 5 Continents, 2012. Reproduced: pl. 54
    Petridis, Constantine. "African Master Carvers: Nine sculptors of traditional African artworks rise from anonymity.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 57, no. 2 (March/April 2017): 32-33. Reproduced: P. 32; Mentioned: P. 32, 33 archive.org
    Smith, Fred T., Judith Perani, Joseph L. Underwood, and Martha J. Ehrlich. The Visual Arts of Africa : Gender, Power, and Life Cycle Rituals. Second edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 174, no. 6.15
    Heinrich, Will. "More Than 90 Art Shows and Exhibitions to See This Fall,"The New York Times, September 8, 2022. Reproduced. www.nytimes.com
    Green, James. "Islamic Influence in the Work of Yorùbá Sculptor Bámigbóyè," ÌMỌ̀ DÁRA, October 16, 2022. Reproduced www.imodara.com
    Elisofon, Eliot, and William Fagg. The Sculpture of Africa: 405 Photographs. London: Thames & Hudson, 1958. p. 114–115, fig. 144
  • Bámgbóyè: A Twentieth-Century Yorùbá Sculptor. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (organizer) (September 9, 2022-January 8, 2023).
    African Master Carvers: Known and Famous. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-July 16, 2017).
    Masterpieces of African Art. The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (October 21, 1954-January 2, 1955).
  • {{cite web|title=Headdress (Ẹpa) called Atófòjọ́wò (“You Can Look at It for a Whole Day”)|url=false|author=Moshood Olusomo Bámigbóyè|year=1920–30|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1991.165