Advanced Search 
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 a dignitary with drum and two attendants striking gongs
Edo, Benin kingdom, Nigeria
c. 1530-1570
Medium/Technique
Copper alloy
Dimensions
Length x width: 43.2 x 27.9 cm (17 x 11 in.)
Credit Line
Robert Owen Lehman Collection
Accession NumberL-G 7.32.2012
CollectionsAfrica and Oceania
ClassificationsPlaques
This bronze plaque is part of a set of more than 800 that once decorated the pillars in the audience hall of the Oba, or king, of Benin. Three men play musical instruments in a procession through Benin City, the capital of the kingdom. In the center, a man wearing a leopard-tooth necklace and a warrior's bell at his chest plays a drum. His leather jerkin, worn over the torso to protect from arrows and sword thrusts, further underscores his role as a warrior. On either side, two men wearing helmets play gongs. On all three figures, the bells hanging from their waists would provide additional sound as they moved. Benin artists sometimes used hierarchical scale, where the most important person is largest. Here, the central figure is largest, indicating that he is the highest-ranking person in the composition.
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, probably by Ernest Percy Stuart Roupell (b. 1870 - d. 1938), London; September 23, 1898, sold by Roupell to William Downing Webster (dealer; b. 1863 – d. 1913), London and Bicester, Oxfordshire, England (stock no. 5848) [see note 1]; October 15, 1898, sold by W. D. Webster for £19 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 2]. By 2011, Robert Owen Lehman, Rochester, NY; 2012, promised gift of Robert Owen Lehman to the MFA.
NOTES:
[1] William Downing Webster stock book, nos. 1-9834 (Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa), entry no. 5848 (online). Roupell was the commanding officer of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force in Benin.
[2] 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.
NOTES:
[1] William Downing Webster stock book, nos. 1-9834 (Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa), entry no. 5848 (online). Roupell was the commanding officer of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force in Benin.
[2] 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.