Ife terracotta works constitute a large and diverse corpus that includes sculptures and vessels depicting human, animal, and other-worldly subjects. These works vary in size from nearly lifesize, full-length figures to tiny figurines only six inches high, and range in style from extreme naturalism to abstract forms.

The art-historical importance of Ife works lies in their highly developed and distinctive sculptural style, described alternately as naturalistic, portraitlike, and humanistic. These include human heads and figures depicting idealized crowned royalty and their attendants, as well as images of diseased, deformed, or captive persons. The delicately rendered vertical facial striations that appear on many of the sculptures may represent scarification patterns.