The Aesetics of Color:

Yoruba Color Aesthetics

text by Dr. Roxanne Farrar

Often the Yoruba use elephants in their imagery. The elephant is the symbol of strength and loyalty. Somebody that wasn't familiar with Yoruba chromatic might mistake the faces for those of a white person or a black person. Quite the contrary, these are the deities. So, this is the face of a hunter deity. It's not about racial characteristics when they employ these images and colors, it's about what deity relates to what chromatic system. Their colors are not necessarily naturalistic.

 

 

 

 

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