This face pendant was created for the court of the Kingdom of Benin, a highly centralized state founded in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries in southwestern Nigeria, ruled by a divine king, or Oba, with a complex pyramidal bureaucracy of Palace Chiefs, Town Chiefs, minor palace officials, chiefly retainers, and members of the guilds that included craftsmen who produced sculpture in wood, ivory, and brass, embroidered cloths, and other court regalia.
The Portuguese visited Benin in the 1470's, and Duarte Pacheco Pereira described the state: "The Kingdom of Beny [Benin] is about eighty leagues long and forty wide; it is usually at war with its neighbors and takes many captives, whom we buy at twelve or fifteen brasses bracelets each, or for copper bracelets which they prize more" (Ben Amos 1980: 6,7). In 1897 a British expeditionry force attacked Benin, looted the palace, and burned it. Although the members of the brass casters' guild ("Igun Eronmwon") continue to cast royal and chiefly regalia today, most of the objects from Benin in collections outside of Nigeria, including this piece, date from the long period before the British attack.
This "mask" was worn by chiefs of all ranks as a pendant attached to the bunched cloth of the wrapper on the left hip as part of ceremonial attire. "In form it is related to the brass pendant masks sent to vassal rulers ... and the ivory pendant mask worn by the Oba (Ben Amos 1980: 75 and 1984).
The head is represented wearing crown made largely of pink fire-coral beads. The decorative pattern beneath the chin represents a row of mud fish, some cast in brass as part of the whole head, and alternate fish cast in a different alloy of copper to create a color contrast when the object was polished. The strip down the nose is made of copper and the pupils of the eyes were made separately of iron set into the wax model before casting, again to create a color contrast.
The stylization of the ear, nostrils, and especially the full and sensuous lips seem to indicate an early date, and an identical piece in a New York gallery has been dated to the 17th century by William Fagg.
Bibliography:
Ben Amos, Paula. 1980, The Art of Benin. London: Thames and Hudson.
Stanley Visual Classroom 2019 Spring Reinstall, Stanley Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, January 22 - July 14, 2019.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2016 Spring Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, January 16 - July 17, 2016.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2015 Fall Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, August 11, 2015 – January 3, 2016.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2015 Spring Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, January 17 – July 19, 2015.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2014 Spring Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, January 14 – July 13, 2014.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2013 Fall Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, July 1, 2013 – January 5, 2014.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2012 Fall Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, August 13, 2012 - January 6, 2013.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2012 Spring Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, January - August 2012.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2011 Fall Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, August 13, 2011 - January 1, 2012.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2011 Spring Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, January 1 - July 29, 2011.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2010 Fall Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, August 1 - December 30, 2010.
UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom 2009 Fall Reinstall, UIMA@IMU Visual Classroom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, August 8, 2009 - August 1, 2010.
African Galleries Reinstall, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, January 2007 – January 2008.
African Art, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, September 2001 - January 2008.
Monumentality in Miniature, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, August 8 – December 31, 1998.
Journeys: Life Stories of African Art, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, March 31 - July 30, 1995.
The Silver Anniversary Exhibitions: From the Permanent Collection, 1969-1994, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, August 28 - October 16, 1994.
Art & Life in Africa, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, March 1994.
Art & Life in Africa, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, September 19, 1992 – February 1, 1993.
Birth and Death, Stanley II, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, September 1990.
Stanley II, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, March 1989.
Art and Life in Africa, Selections from the Stanley Collection, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, April 5 - August 16, 1985.