Despite its heavy weight, this pendant would have been worn at the waist of the king, or oba, of Benin during special occasions. It depicts an oba flanked by his two most intimate attendants, called enobore. These special servants lift the oba’s arms for him and are dressed in the same elaborately beaded coral tunic and crown as the oba himself. All coral belonged to the king, and was given to courtiers to wear through his authority. The high basketry projections on their crowns are a mark of leadership in this region. The oba also wears the bead of rule on his chest, an emblem of authority since the sixteenth century. The artist has emphasized the importance of the central figure of the oba not only through his costume, but through subtle shifts in scale. His calves are stronger and more fully modeled than those of his attendants, and his body projects outward towards the viewer, commanding attention. The braided pattern on his skirt is echoed in the pair of intertwined mudfish at his feet. Mudfish are an attribute of the oba because they live in the rivers during the wet season and hibernate in the riverbed during the dry season. This ability to live in two realms is a metaphor for the oba’s power in both the world of the living and the spiritual realm of the gods and ancestors.
18th/19th century, probably commissioned from the Igun Eronmwon, or royal brasscasters guild, by a member of the court of Benin. By 1984, Mathias Komor (dealer; d. 1984), New York; by 1984, sold by Komor to Robert Owen Lehman, New York; 2018, gift of Robert Owen Lehman to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 19, 2018)