{
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"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Dance staff for E\u0300s\u0323u\u0300 (\u00d2g\u00f2 \u00c8l\u1eb9\u0301gba), 1800s. Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Yor\u00f9b\u00e1-style maker. Wood, leather, cowrie shells, seeds, and natural fiber; 62 cm (24 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2018.34",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Dance staff for E\u0300s\u0323u\u0300 (\u00d2g\u00f2 \u00c8l\u1eb9\u0301gba)",
"creation_date": "1800s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1800,
"creation_date_latest": 1899,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Yor\u00f9b\u00e1-style maker"
],
"technique": "Wood, leather, cowrie shells, seeds, and natural fiber",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "62 cm (24 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"No Extent Specified": {
"height": 0.62,
"height_inch": 24,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.4375
},
"overall": {
"height": 0.625,
"height_inch": 24,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.39,
"width_inch": 15,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"depth": 0.12,
"depth_inch": 4,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.75
},
"figures": {
"height": 0.29,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.4375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 324225,
"title": "African art rotation",
"description": "African art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20, 2019-October 5, 2020).",
"opening_date": "2019-02-20T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Utotombo: L'Art d'Afrique noire dans les collections priv\u00e9es belges. Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium (March 25 - June 5, 1988)",
"opening_date": "1988-03-25T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Lucien Van de Velde [1910\u20131996], Anvers, Belgium, sold to Dr. Marc Lorre)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?\u20131974",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Mrs. Marc Lorre, Antwerp, Belgium, sold to Christie\u2019s",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1974\u20132012",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Christie\u2019s, Paris, France, December 11, 2012, no. 59, sold to a private collector)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2012",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Private collection, Paris, France, sold to Christie\u2019s",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2018",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "(Christie\u2019s, Paris, France, April 8, 2018, Sale 16061 Arts d'Afrique, d'Oc\u00e9anie et d'Am\u00e9rique, no. 58 sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2018",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2018\u2013",
"sortorder": 6
}
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"find_spot": null,
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"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "If Eshu isn\u2019t properly honored, trouble may befall the community or individual.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "\u00c8\u1e63\u00f9 (also called \u00c8l\u0323\u00e9gba) embodies the most complex deity in the Yor\u00f9b\u00e1 pantheon of gods. The messenger of the Yor\u00f9b\u00e1 gods, \u00c8\u1e63\u00f9 is also the bearer of sacrifices, guardian of the ritual way of life, and is associated with highly significant places including crossroads, markets, and home entrances. As seen here, \u00c8\u1e63\u00f9's power is often visually represented in \u00d2g\u00f2 \u00c8l\u0323\u00e9gba (dance staffs); in this example, the unusually paired man and woman reference his ability to switch between the two genders, turn death into life (through childbirth), and to overcome the tension between the sexes. The male character bears a ritual flute reserved for this god. The abundance of cowrie shells means that \u00c8\u1e63\u00f9 brings wealth.",
"external_resources": {
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"internet_archive": [
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"citations": [
{
"citation": "Debbaut, Jan, Dominique Favart, and G. van Geertruyen. Utotombo: l'art d'Afrique noire dans les collections prive\u0301es belges. Exh. Cat. Brussels: Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts, March 25-June 5, 1988.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 163, cat. 98",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Drewal, Henry John, John Pemberton, Rowland Abiodun, and Allen Wardwell. Yoruba: Nine centuries of African art and thought. New York: Center for African Art in association with H.N. Abrams, 1989.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth. \u201cAcquisitions 2018: African Art.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 59, no. 2 (March/April 2019): 8-9.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 9; Mentioned: P. 8, 9.",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2019-02/page/n3/mode/2up"
}
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:52:42.550000"
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