Digital Benin

Overall: 4 3/4 x 3 1/4 x 1 7/8 in. (12.1 x 8.3 x 4.8 cm) Overall (with mount): 6 15/16 x 3 1/4 x 2 7/8 in. (17.6 x 8.3 x 7.3 cm) Mount: 6 7/16 x 3 x 2 9/16 in. (16.4 x 7.6 x 6.5 cm)

ClassificationObject Type

Jewelry

Object NameObject Type

Pendants

Mark(s)Inscriptions

Inscribed in black crayon or graphite on bottom of mount: "18 [or possibly 81]"; Inagaki seal impressed on back of vertical support of mount

DatedDate Made

19th–early 20th century

Place madeProduction Place

Benin City, Nigeria, Africa

ProvenancePrior Source

Purchased by Albert C. Barnes from Paul Guillaume, Paris, December 1922

CultureEthnic Attribution

Edo

DepartmentDepartment and Institution

Gallery

Curatorial RemarksNotes

This type of "mask" was actually designed to be worn at the waist as part of the regalia of a Benin king. Early examples of the genre, of which four exist, are carved in ivory and depicted Queen Mother Idia. This example, cast in copper alloy, takes the form of a face with a headdress decorated with coral beads and an openwork beard. It appears to be a later example, possibly post-1897 (the date of the British Punitive Expedition that sacked Benin). (Dr. Christa Clarke, March 2003)

Exhibition HistoryExhibition History

BibliographyBibliography

Clarke, Christa. African Art in the Barnes Foundation: The Triumph of L'Art nègre and the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Skira Rizzoli, 2015, 180, 182, pl. 33a. Guillaume, Paul and Thomas Munro. Primitive ------ Sculpture. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1926, pl. 38 "Benin mask, XVth century." Medgyes, Ladislas. "The Art of the African ------." International Studio. (November 1922): 145 "A mask in black bronze from Benin (collection Bela Hein)."

Published ReferencesBibliography

President's Files, receipt from Paul Guillaume, December 1922, no. 18 "Petit masque Bénin" (AR.ABC.1922.70)

Attribution

Unidentified artist