Plaque with Figure of Leopard
Rectangular horizontal flat metal sheet with figure of animal in raised relief facing right in profile. Background has incised floral or plant pattern surrounded by stippling. Leopard has incised circles surrounded by stippling. Segments of all corners are missing, most noticeably in upper left corner. Punched holes line the perimeter; two on top, three on right side, two and part of one on bottom.
Label Descriptiondescription In 1668 the Dutchman Olfert Dapper, writing of his travels through capital and its artistic splendors. He reports that bronze plaques, such as this example with a representation of a leopard, covered wooden pillars from top to bottom in the long colonnades supporting magnificent palaces, houses and apartments of the courtiers. With nearly nine hundred known examples, the plaques, which demonstrate a remarkable high degree of skill and sophistication in bronze casting, commonly depict warriors, reptiles, leopards and Obas on horsebacks with royal attendants at their sides. The leopard symbolized the power and authority of the Oba. Most Benin plaques have a river leaf design motif incised in delicate shallow lines, covering the flat surface behind the central relief. The crudely punches holes around the perimeter of the plaques (also found in the necks of early Ife and Benin heads) evidently held the nails for attachment to the pillars. It is unknown why they were not a part of the original cast.
Website Descriptiondescription Rectangular horizontal flat metal sheet with figure of animal in raised relief facing right in profile. Background has incised floral or plant pattern surrounded by stippling. Leopard has incised circles surrounded by stippling. Segments of all corners are missing, most noticeably in upper left corner. Punched holes line the perimeter; two on top, three on right side, two and part of one on bottom.
overall: 13 3/8 x 17 3/8 x 1 1/2 in (33.9725 x 44.1325 x 3.81 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford
ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/0/NAMEprior source Ratton, Charles
Provenance/1/Agentprovenance New Orleans Museum of Art
Provenance/2/Agentprovenance Stafford, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M.
Provenance/3/Agentprovenance Museum Für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, Germany
Exhibition/2/Venuesexhibition history San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, Wyoming; Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT; Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University, University Park, PA
Exhibition/0/Exhibition-Title Ancestors of Congo Square: African Art in the New Orleans Museum of Art
Exhibition/1/Exhibition-Title Great Collectors/Great Donors: The Making of the New Orleans Museum of Art, 1910-2010
Exhibition/2/Exhibition-Title Resonance from the Past: African Sculpture from the New Orleans Museum of Art
Exhibition/3/Exhibition-Title New Orleans Collects: African Art
Exhibition/4/Exhibition-Title Odyssey of an Art Collector: Unity in Diversity / Five Thousand Years of Art
Exhibition/5/Exhibition-Title African Sculpture Lent from New York Collectors
Exhibition/6/Exhibition-Title Masterpieces of African Art
ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/0/NOTE Paris
ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/0/PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/0/RELATIONSHIP ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/1/NAME Museum Für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, Germany
ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/1/PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/2/END_DATE 1979
ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/2/NAME Stafford, Mr. Frederick
ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/2/PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/2/RELATIONSHIP donor
ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/3/NAME Stafford, Mrs. Frederick M.
ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/3/PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION ITEMS_OWNERS_SET/ITEMS_OWNERS/3/RELATIONSHIP donor
ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/0/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/0 PUBLICATION:Die Altertümer von Benin
PKEY:2675
PUBLICATION_DATE:1919
PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION:N
ILLUSTRATION:Y
POSITION:44
ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/0/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/1 PUBLICATION:Ancestors of Congo Square: African Art in the New Orleans Museum of Art
PKEY:1781
PUBLICATION_DATE:2011
PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION:N
PAGES:159
ILLUSTRATION:Y
POSITION:80
ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/0/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/2 PUBLICATION:Resonance from the Past African Sculpture from the New Orleans Museum of Art
PKEY:1742
PUBLICATION_DATE:2005-02
PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION:N
PAGES:80
ILLUSTRATION:Y
POSITION:50
ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/0/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/3 PUBLICATION:Masterpieces of African Art
PKEY:373
PUBLICATION_DATE:1954
PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION:N
ILLUSTRATION:Y
POSITION:72
ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/0/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/4 PUBLICATION:African Sculpture Lent by New York Collectors
PKEY:2676
PUBLICATION_DATE:1958
PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION:N
ILLUSTRATION:Y
POSITION:14
ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/0/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/5 PUBLICATION:The Sculpture of Africa
PKEY:2677
PUBLICATION_DATE:1958
PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION:N
ILLUSTRATION:Y
POSITION:169
ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/0/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/6 PUBLICATION:Odyssey of an Art Collector: Unity in Diversity, Five Thousand Years of Art
PKEY:424
PUBLICATION_DATE:1966-10-22
PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION:N
PAGES:158, 73
ILLUSTRATION:Y
POSITION:115
ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/0/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/7 PUBLICATION:New Orleans Collects: African Art
PKEY:2488
PUBLICATION_DATE:1968-02
PRIOR_ATTRIBUTION:N
ILLUSTRATION:Y
POSITION:78
ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/1/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/0 ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/1/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/1 ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/1/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/2 ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/1/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/3 ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/1/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/4 ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS_SET/1/ITEMS_PUBLICATIONS/5 New Orleans Museum of Art