Head of an Oba. West Africa, Nigeria: Benin. Early period, early 16th century. Brass, iron. h. 23.0 cm. Acquired 1966. Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection. UEA 232
free_field.contentdescription JA4599JA 4596JA 4598JA 4600MH-232Polaroids in cons file232a1232a2232b1This hollow head has been thinly cast using the lost was process (cire perdue). It sits on a neck ring and shows braided and beaded hair with a woven headdress. The face displays extremely smooth skin. The mouth is partially open and the eyes have iron inserts. There is a small dent in the back of the head.
(VADS Helen Coleman)
This is one of some eight or ten heads of this form which may well represent the pinnacle of Benin artistic achievement, matching or surpassing, for the most discerning judges, the early Queen Mother heads, which are the closest relatives, and the superb ivory masks which are similarly thought to be contemporary with them (Fagg, 1963).
Several hands have been at work among this group but all seem to match well enough for us to assume that they were all made for a single funeral. There were only two funerals in the first half of the sixteenth century at which the present day head may have been used- that of the warrior king Oba, performed by his son Esigye about 1505, and that of Esigye about 1551.
Beside being a great warrior, Esigye was the founder of the practice of elevating the Oba's mother to the honour of Queen Mother; and the most natural explanation for the four early Queen Mother heads is that they were all made for Esigye's mother Idia, though it is not known whether this would have been on the occasion of her elevation or her death. It can be shown on a minute comparative examination of the Queen Mother heads, and of the male heads such as the present one, that all were probably made within a fairly short period of time. Although described as bronze, early Nigerian castings should more correctly be described as brasses; by the mid sixteenth century the Portuguese had imported vast quantities of European tin bronze, and Benin ancestor altar heads suddenly became much heavier. The thinness of this casting would date it to before this massive influx of bronze.
From this concatenation of assorted facts a very strong presumption arises that these bronze heads were made in about 1505 to crown the tomb of Ozolua and that the Queen Mother heads were made some time during the following ten or twenty years. Ancestor altars were generally platforms some two to three feet high; the uhumwelao heads ( by means of a hole in the crown) also supports carved elephant tusks ( Fagg, 1970).
Underwood (1949) was the first to draw attention to 'a fine appreciation of anatomy in the fusion of the separate forms of skull. Face and neck' in this head, considering this to be due to Ife influence (though even there this mark of supreme sculptural awareness is extremely rare). On the technical side, the iron inserts in the eyes (and perhaps in the upper lip) served a dual purpose of imparting realism and serving as anchor points to prevent displacement of the core within the investment after melting out the wax model in the lost-wax process (Dark, 1973). Here, despite this precaution and the caster's skill, there is a casting flaw at the back on the right side. The head-dress and neck ring depict coral beads; these would have come from the Mediterranean, probably by trans-Saharan trade; red jasper beads are also worn by Benin royalty ( red is considered a threatening colour, with the capacity to repel evil).
Briefly summarised, the early Period of Benin Art, that of the finer bronze heads and the ivory masks, dates from the fifteenth to the mid sixteenth century. The Middle Period, to which the plaques and many heads and other bronzes, such as some of the cocks, aquamaniles and Portuguese soldiers belong, is approximately 1550-1650. The Late Period, characterised by heavy, flamboyant Oba's heads and a decline in craftsmanship, spans the time between 1650 and 1897, the date of the Benin Expedition( Fagg, 1963).
(Margret Carey. In: Steven Hooper (ed.), 1997, Catalogue to the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection. University of East Anglia.)
h. 230 x w. 213 x d. 215 mm
inscription.contentinscriptions Collection identification and object number
inscription.methodinscriptions Silversafe paper coated and adhered with Paraloid B72
Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection
Formerly in the Pitt-Rivers Collection, Farnham, Dorset.
acquisition.notesprovenance Benin City was the principal settlement of the Edo Kingdom of Benin, situated in the south of Nigeria. In February 1897 the city was attacked by British military, ending the ruling indigenous administration, and the Oba (King) Ovonramwen Nogbaisi (reigned 1888–1897) was exiled. The city was destroyed along with its Royal Palaces. The royal regalia and important religious and memorial sculptures that survived the raid, were looted by the combined forces of British Royal marines and other colonial forces. The Oba’s son, Aiguobasinwin Ovonramwen, Eweka II (reigned 1914-1933) returned to Benin City in 1914, restored the city and Palace complex and the Oba dynasty continues today as a regional and cultural administration in Edo state, Nigeria.
The number of artefacts taken in 1897 is believed to be around 2,500, which were shipped to the UK by the British Admiralty. About 40% of the objects were accessioned to the British Museum (700 works) and other works were given to individual military personnel. The remainder were sold at auction by the Admiralty to pay for the expedition for example, at Stevens Auction Rooms, 38 King Street, London, May 25, 1897, followed by several sales at William Downing Webster, Bicester, between 1898 and 1900. The artefacts are now dispersed across museum collections, notably in Europe and the USA. Formerly in the Pitt Rivers museum, Dorset (illustrated in the catalogue of 1900). Items from the Pitt Rivers Museum were sold on the open art market throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s.Purchased by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury from John Hewett, 1966 Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury to the University of East Anglia, 1976 (Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts)
Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1973
Victoria and Albert Museum
catalogue.namebibliography Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection / edited by Steven Hooper
FALGAYRETTES-LEVEAU, CHRISTIANE
documentation.staff_library 2021-05-192020-08-122020-06-082020-06-082020-06-082020-06-012020-06-012020-06-012020-06-012020-06-012020-05-182020-04-022019-10-14
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Collection Highlights (web text)
<p class="p2" style="margin-bottom:10px;padding:0px;font-family:HelveticaNeueLTPro-Lt, Arial, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:16px;background-color:#ffffff;">This magnificent sculpture once formed part of an ancestral altar made to honour the deceased Oba (king) of the historic Kingdom of Benin. There were two funerals in the first half of the sixteenth century for which this sculpture could have been commissioned: the first was for Ozolua (c. 1480–1504), performed by his son Esigie (c. 1504–1547); the second for Esigie himself, performed by his son, Orhogbua (c. 1547–1580).</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom:10px;padding:0px;font-family:HelveticaNeueLTPro-Lt, Arial, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:16px;background-color:#ffffff;">The sculpture depicts the idealised likeness typical of royal portraiture. Commemorative portraiture of this type is highly stylised and portrays the deceased in his prime. A cavity in the head would have originally accommodated a carved elephant tusk.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom:10px;padding:0px;font-family:HelveticaNeueLTPro-Lt, Arial, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:16px;background-color:#ffffff;">The Sainsbury Centre acknowledges the ownership of this object is contested due to the circumstances of its removal from the Royal Court of Benin in 1897 by British colonial action. Please see our online catalogue for more information.</p><p class="p3" style="margin-bottom:10px;padding:0px;font-family:HelveticaNeueLTPro-Lt, Arial, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:16px;background-color:#ffffff;">—</p><p class="p4" style="margin-bottom:10px;padding:0px;font-family:HelveticaNeueLTPro-Lt, Arial, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:16px;background-color:#ffffff;">Calvin Winner, Head of Collections, Sainsbury Centre</p>