An oil painting on wood panel with iron oxide and 24k gold leaf by the Afro-Cuban American painter Harmonia Rosales, completed in 2020 and acquired by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture the following year. Styled after Raphael's School of Athens, with the painting's Greek key border replaced by the Adinkra symbol wawa aba, it depicts a Yoruba tale of betrayal among the orishas: Oya caught between Ogun and Shango in a conflict the artist frames as the opening of the bloodiest wars fought in the Orisha Kingdom, a deliberate echo of the Greco-Roman story of Vulcan catching Venus with Mars. Golden halos mark all three figures as sacred.
Facts
Custody
Current LocationNational Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., object number 2021.66 1 Current CustodianNational Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution 1 Origins
Date of Creation Attributed To Physical Form
MediumOil on wood panel with iron oxide and 24k gold leaf 1 Subject Matter
Depicted SubjectThe orishas Ogun, Oya and Shango, at the moment of the betrayal that Yoruba tradition holds set off war in the Orisha Kingdom. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Athens, Cities This source names Athens directly: "Styled after Raphael's School of Athens, with the painting's Greek key border replaced by the Adinkra symbol wawa aba, it depicts a Yoruba tale of betrayal among the orishas: Oya caught between Ogun..."
This source names Vulcan directly: "echo of the Greco-Roman story of Vulcan catching Venus with Mars."
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