An amazing Yoruba horseman sculpture

An amazing Yoruba horseman sculpture, featuring a male figure on horseback, presumably a chief, flanked by numerous attendents, surmounted with a hatlike helmet an an abract bird, painted with red, ocher and bueish pigmnt. Collected in the Ketu region, Nigeria.

A Yoruba horseman sculpture surrounded by smaller figurines belongs to a well-documented category of commemorative and ritual sculpture produced primarily in Oyo and Ekiti regions of southwestern Nigeria. Such compositions, often carved in wood and sometimes painted with polychrome pigments, reflect the Yoruba idealization of kingship, heroic ancestry, and the complex hierarchy of divine and human authority.

The central equestrian figure represents a warrior, king, or deified ancestor, depicted in commanding scale and mounted on a horse—a potent symbol of prestige and military power in the Yoruba world. The horse itself was historically a northern import, associated with cavalry traditions of the savanna empires, and in Yoruba iconography it came to signify access to supernatural and political force.

The surrounding smaller figures—servants, musicians, women, priests, enemies, or spirits—constitute a microcosm of social and cosmic order. They articulate the rider’s centrality as the axis of authority, mediating between the human and spiritual domains. In some cases, these subsidiary figures are shown in acts of homage, sacrifice, or protection, emphasizing both the vulnerability and divine sanction of the leader. The composition thus visualizes Yoruba conceptions of power as a collective and interdependent phenomenon rather than a purely individual attribute.

Such equestrian ensembles were associated with the worship of Ògún, the deity of iron and war, or with royal ancestral cults, and were displayed during festivals or installed in palace or shrine contexts. Their aesthetic principles—hierarchical scaling, rhythmic repetition of forms, and a tension between abstraction and descriptive detail—align them with the broader Yoruba canon while conveying regional stylistic particularities.

Comparable examples can be found in the collections of the National Museum, Lagos; the British Museum, London; and the Musée du quai Branly, Paris. The Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke has presented several notable Yoruba equestrian groups emphasizing their ritual and artistic significance, accessible under the Yoruba section of wolfgang-jaenicke.com Yoruba section of wolfgang-jaenicke.com

Below I list museums and selected catalogue entries where equestrian Yorùbá groups (horseman with attendant or subsidiary figures) are held; each museum entry gives the object title, the museum accession number when available, a concise description, and a short note on provenance or context. Footnotes give the source entries for images and catalogue pages.

Selected commercial and auction references (for comparative provenance and catalogue literature). Christie’s and Sotheby’s catalogues include high-quality photographs and provenance notes for Yorùbá horseman figures offered at auction and are useful for comparative typology and provenance research; examine specific lots for detailed condition reports and provenance chains. Sotheby´s

If you would like a printable catalogue sheet for a site visit I can prepare a plain-text checklist with museum names, object titles, accession numbers, short provenance notes, and direct catalogue links (one line per object). Indicate whether you prefer European museums only, global major collections, or a mixture that includes auction references and private-gallery examples.

Height: 144 cm
Weight: 32 kg incl. stand