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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
Relief plaque showing three officials
Edo, Benin kingdom, Nigeria
c. 1530-1570
Medium/Technique
Copper alloy
Dimensions
Length x width: 48.3 x 38.1 cm (19 x 15 in.)
Credit Line
Robert Owen Lehman Collection
Accession NumberL-G 7.31.2012
CollectionsAfrica and Oceania
ClassificationsPlaques
The three men on this bronze plaque, part of a set of more than 800 that once decorated the pillars in the audience hall of the Oba, or king, of Benin, are wearing leopard-tooth necklaces and warrior's bells tied around their chests. The bells suspended from their waists would make a fearsome noise on the battlefield. As protection against arrows and sword thrusts, each wears a leather jerkin decorated with a leopard's face, The leopard motif ties the warriors to the Oba, who was often metaphorically compared to a leopard. The two men on the left are wearing crowns with protruding feathers. One holds a circular box, called an ekpokin, that was used to bring tribute payments to the Oba or gifts from the Oba to his courtiers. These men, with the crowns, are of lower rank than the figure on the right wearing a helmet. The figure on the right is wearing a much more elaborate necklace of coral beads, called an odigba, a gift from the Oba to high-ranking courtiers.
Provenance16th century, commissioned by Oba Esigie (r. 1517-1550s) or his son Oba Orhogbua (r. 1550s-1570s), Royal Palace, Benin City; by descent to Oba Ovonramwen (Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, b. about 1857 – d. about 1914; r. 1888 - 1897); 1897, looted from the Royal Palace during the British military occupation of Benin. March 7, 1898, sale, J. C. Stevens Auction Rooms, London, lot 225, sold for £17.17 to Lt.-General Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers (b. 1827 - d. 1900), Farnham, England; 1966, Pitt-Rivers Museum closed and collection passed by descent to Stella Howson-Clive (Pitt-Rivers), Dorset [see note]. By 2011, Robert Owen Lehman, Rochester, NY; 2012, promised gift of Robert Owen Lehman to the MFA.
NOTE:
Augustus Pitt-Rivers established a privately-owned museum in Dorset in 1880, where he housed acquisitions he made between 1880 and 1900. He kept several notebooks recording the collection, now held by Cambridge University. The collection passed by descent through Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers’s son, Alexander Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, to his grandson, Captain George Pitt-Rivers (1890-1966) and his common law wife, Stella Howson-Clive (Pitt-Rivers). The museum closed in 1966 and portions of the collection were sold.
NOTE:
Augustus Pitt-Rivers established a privately-owned museum in Dorset in 1880, where he housed acquisitions he made between 1880 and 1900. He kept several notebooks recording the collection, now held by Cambridge University. The collection passed by descent through Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers’s son, Alexander Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, to his grandson, Captain George Pitt-Rivers (1890-1966) and his common law wife, Stella Howson-Clive (Pitt-Rivers). The museum closed in 1966 and portions of the collection were sold.