Urhotọ
Description
Urhotọ (altar tableau) are displayed on an ancestral altar dedicated to the Iy’Ọba, who was usually entitled to an Urhotọ in her ancestral shrine. Just like the Ọba, after her death, an altar was erected in her memory within Uselu Palace and Ọba Palace. These altars would be decorated with a collection of objects related to achievements in life. Urhotọ are usually placed on ancestral altars amid... Read more
Urhotọ (altar tableau) are displayed on an ancestral altar dedicated to the Iy’Ọba, who was usually entitled to an Urhotọ in her ancestral shrine. Just like the Ọba, after her death, an altar was erected in her memory within Uselu Palace and Ọba Palace. These altars would be decorated with a collection of objects related to achievements in life.
Urhotọ are usually placed on ancestral altars amid other typical altar objects, such as commemorative heads, bells and carved altar tusks. They are usually made up of a square or rectangular cast base with a square opening at the centre. The commemorated Ọba or Iy’Ọba is placed centrally, and attendants, courtiers and chiefs flank them on either side. The bases are usually decorated with a guilloche motif seen throughout the arts of the Benin royal court, and iconographic motifs such as elephant trunks ending in fists, mudfish and ram heads.
Queen mother altar tableaux began being cast in the eighteenth century, a time when court arts flourished once again, after a period of turmoil in the seventeenth century (Ezra, 1992).
Edo designations
English designations
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52 objects
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