Yoruba Ibeji or 'Twins' Figure

Two long arms. Two small hands clenched like a boxer’s. A neck stretched just long enough to be elegant.

This Yoruba ibeji from Nigeria has a dark body washed with reddish tones, a lighter face with heavy-lidded eyes, and a high ridged coiffure. Twentieth century, wood, a little under nine inches tall, standing on a round dark base.

Where a twin carving is concerned, the Yoruba long ago settled on a single idea: give the figure presence. The rest is detail.

Here the detail is lovely.