Shrine Jar

The Yoruba use a convex mold to form the base of a pot and then complete it with coils. This elegant, understated shrine vessel, with its wide mouth and full body that tapers to a soft point at the bottom, is clearly Yoruba in shape. The container’s subtly bowed neck stands in contrast to its rounded shoulder. A ledge marks the meeting of these two forms, from which sharply rendered ribs descend to define deep channels in rhythmic intervals around the body of the vessel. This handsome pot has no representational imagery to indicate the deity it was made to honor; yet wide-mouthed containers are often found on shrines for Sango, the god of thunder and protector of twins, where they support calabashes that hold sacred objects.