84278

Disk

Brass with repoussé

1 × 1/16 × 24 in. (2.54 × 0.203 × 61 cm)

Sculpture

18th–19th century

16th century

Royal Bronze-casting Guild (Igun Eronmwon)

Guinea Coast, Nigeria

Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection

Probably commissioned by the Oba of Benin, 18th–19th century [see note 1]; by descent to Oba Ovonramwen (Ovonramwen Nogbaisi) (ca. 1857– ca. 1914), Royal Palace, Benin City; looted during the Raid on Benin, February 1897, and removed from Benin City by Lieutenant Norman Burrows, Mellor Hall, Marple Bridge, Derbyshire [see note 1]; sold to Lieutenant-General Augustus Henry-Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers (1827–1900), Farnham, England, May 2, 1898. Josef Oskar Müller (1887–1977), Solothurn, Switzerland; sale, Christie’s, London, June 13, 1978; sold to Charles B. Benenson (1913–2004), Greenwich, Conn., bequeathed to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2004 Note 1: The Oba of Benin was the chief patron of the Igun Eronmwon (Royal Brasscasters Guild), but the royal artists could make pieces for other clients with special permission. The iconography of Disk suggests a royal commission. Note 2: An inscription in paint on the back of the disk reads, “Benin. BT. N. Burrows. Apr. 1898;” Lieutenant Burrows of the North Lancashire regiment was attached to the Niger Coast Protectorate Force from February 1895. The Raid on Benin was a British military led expedition against the west African Kingdom of Benin in retaliation over a trade dispute in January 1897. Despite fierce resistance, British troops captured, burned and looted Benin city, including much of the country’s art, which was taken to Britain. Although the ceremonial office of the Oba remains, Oba Ovonramwen was exiled, and the Benin kingdom ended following the British attack. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The Gallery recognizes the looted status of objects from the Benin Kingdom in our collection and is part of ongoing conversations regarding these artworks. The ethics of collecting works of art removed from their countries of origin during periods of European colonialism or conflict is a subject of debate among collecting institutions, international governments, and the public. The Gallery is sensitive to the complex history of these objects and seeks to educate the wider Yale University, local, national, and international communities through their continued display.

Edo, Benin Kingdom

African Art

Images of Power: Art of the Royal Court of Benin, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, January 23-February 21, 1981

Lieutenant-General Augustus Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers, Antique Works of Art from Benin (Oxford, England: privately printed, 1900), 36-37, no. 102, ill. Felix von Luschan, Die Alterumer von Benin (Berlin, Germany: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1919), 438-439, fig. 695. Christie’s London, London, Christie’s: African Art from the Collection of the late Josef Mueller of Solothurn, Switzerland, sale cat. (June 13, 1978), fig. 264. Wilson P. Foss, Nigerian Splendor: A Checklist of the Exhibition, exh. cat. (Hanover, N.H.: Dartmouth College, 1980), no. 54. Flora S. Kaplan, Images of Power: Art of the Royal Court of Benin, exh. cat. (New York: Grey Art Gallery, New York University, 1981), 67, fig. 58. Frederick John Lamp, “Charles Benenson and His Legacy of African Art to Yale,” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2004): 26, ill. “Acquisitions, July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006,” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2006): 222. Frederick John Lamp, Amanda Maples, and Laura M. Smalligan, Accumulating Histories: African Art from the Charles B. Benenson Collection at the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2012), 117, ill.

1700

2006.51.81

Benenson Notebook III

The imagery on this disk relates to royal power in the Benin Kingdom. The outer rim decoration features leopards, heads of Portuguese figures, and three ceremonial swords, which, in this combination, are an emblem for the oba, or king. The leopard is a symbol for the king; the heads refer to the sea trade and to Olokun, god of the sea, fertility, and prosperity and the oba’s counterpart as ruler of the underworld; and the swords refer to the oba’s power to take life. This disk was expropriated from the Benin Kingdom by the British lieutenant Norman Burrows. In 1897 Burrows took part in the notorious raid on Benin (conventionally known as the “Benin Punitive Mission”), in which the British military sacked Benin City, carrying off the treasures of the royal palace and sending the king into exile.