Crown (Ade)

Late 19th to mid-20th century

Yoruba
Idowa, Nigeria
Coastal West Africa

This elaborate conical crown once belonged to the king of Idowa. It refers to the inner head (ori inu) or spiritual essence of a Yoruba ruler. The faces outlined with beads establish a link to past kings, who serve as influential ancestors to the present one. The beaded veil protects onlookers from the king’s potent gaze while multiple three-dimensional birds allude to the supernatural powers of women.

Status: On View, Gallery 137
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Yoruba
Title: Crown (Ade)
Place: Nigeria (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1875–1975
Medium: Glass beads, fabric, thread, and copper alloy
Dimensions: 102.8 × 27.6 cm (40 1/2 × 10 7/8)
Credit Line: Cora Abrahamson Endowment
Reference Number: 1994.314

Oyin Ogunba, “Crowns and ‘Okute’ at Idowa,” Nigeria 83 (1964), p. 260 (ill.).
William Fagg, Yoruba Beadwork: Art of Nigeria (New York: Pace Gallery, 1980), pp. 78-79, pl. 24 (detail, p. 96)
Richard F. Townsend, The Art of Tribes and Early Kingdoms: Selections from Chicago Collections, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1983), p. 56, no. 87 (ill.).
John Pemberton III, “Art and Rituals for Yoruba Sacred Kings,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 15, 2 (1989), pp. 96–111 (ill.).
Henry Drewal, John Pemberton III, and Roland Abiodun, Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, exh. cat. (New York: Abrams for the Center for African Art, 1989), fig. 31.
Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), p. 249, fig. 656.
Kathleen E. Bickford, Heads of State: Seats of Power, exhibition flyer (Art Institute of Chicago, 1995).
Moyo Okediji, “Art of the Yoruba,” African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 23, 2 (1997), p. 169-171, fig. 26.
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 42, pp. 112-113 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, March 24, 1987-1989.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of Tribes and Early Kingdoms: Selections from Chicago Collections, Jan. 12–Mar. 4, 1984, cat. pp. 56, no. 87 (ill.).
New York, Center for African Art, Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, Sept. 21, 1989–Jan. 7, 1990, cat. 31; traveled to Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 10–Apr. 1, 1990, Washington D.C., National Museum of African Art, May 8–Aug. 26, 1990, Cleveland Museum of Art, Sept. 26–Dec. 9, 1990, New Orleans Museum of Art, Jan. 11–Mar. 24, 1991, Atlanta, High Museum, Apr. 23–June 16, 1991, Phoenix Art Museum, Sept. 4-Oct. 6, 1991.
Art Institute of Chicago, Heads of State: Seats of Power, Sept. 2–Nov. 7, 1995.

The Dagburewe of Idowa, Ijebu province, Ogun State, Nigeria, by the early 20th century until at least 1950, probably until 1964 [William Fagg photographed the crown in Idowa in 1950, see Fagg 1980, p. 19, fig. 9; illustrated in Ogunba, 1964, p. 260]. Dr. and Mrs. Milton D. Ratner (died 1991), The Milton D. Ratner Family Collection, Chicago, Ill., by 1980 [Fagg 1980, p. 78] until at least 1989 [Drewel et. al. 1989; Pemberton III, 1989, Robbins and Nooter, 1989, p. 249, no. 656]. Jeffrey Hammer and Deborah Stokes, Calif., by 1993, sold to the Art Institute, 1994.

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