Benin Pendant Mask
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The Benin Pendant Mask at the British Museum | |
| Material | Ivory |
|---|---|
| Size | 22.5 cm high, 12.5 cm wide |
| Created | Sixteenth century AD |
| Present location | British Museum, London |
| Registration | AOA 1910.5-13.1 |
The Benin Pendant Mask is a small ivory mask worn around the waist or neck by the Oba at Benin that is often associated with Queen Idia, who was a powerful monarch during the early sixteenth century at the Benin court in what is now Nigeria. Two almost identical masks are extant: one at the British Museum in London and the other at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.[1][2]
Description
The two masks were probably made in the early sixteenth century, when Queen Idia, mother of Oba Esigie, ruled the Benin court. The British Museum and Met Museum's examples are virtually the same,[2] with only minor decorative differences. Both pendants denote a powerful image of monarchal elegance, having a crown composed of a series of minute heads that represent bearded Portuguese men,[2] who were significant traders with the Benin Empire at the time. The foreheads of both masks were inlaid with a pair of metal strips to denote scarification marks. The band below the chin is slightly different in the two surviving examples. The collar band on the example in the Metropolitan Museum is damaged.[2]
Use
The masks were not worn on the head, but carried as a pendant from the belt. Today similar masks are carried during ceremonies to remove evil spirits, but in the sixteenth century these masks may have been used during memorial ceremonies for the ruler's mother.[3] The white of the ivory is believed to represent the god Olokun. In this way the portrait masks are not only expensive because they are made from the valuable and tradable ivory, but their colour also represents a god associated with the wealth of the Oba of Benin.[3]
Discovery
Four pectoral masks were found in a large chest in 1897 in the bedchamber of the Oba, the ruler at the Benin court. They were discovered at a time of great civil unrest during the British punitive Benin Expedition of 1897, when many artefacts were dispersed and sold to Western collectors. The British Museum's pendant was purchased in 1910 from the British anthropologist Prof Charles Gabriel Seligman.[4] The Met example was acquired in 1972 as a gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller.[2] The Benin Pendant Mask has become an iconic image of Benin art and it featured on Nigerian one Naira banknotes in 1973.[5]
Gallery
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Benin Pendant Mask. |
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The Met pendant mask, with slight damage to the band under the chin
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Detail of the Met mask
See also
References
- ↑ Highlights, British Museum, retrieved 1 November 2014
- 1 2 3 4 5 Metropolitan Museum Collection Queen Mother Pendant Mask: Iyoba, MetMuseum, retrieved 1 November 2014
- 1 2 Ezra, the Metropolitan Museum of Art ; introductions by Douglas Newton, Julie Jones, Kate (1987). The Pacific Islands, Africa, and the Americas. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 84. ISBN 0870994611. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
- ↑ British Museum Collection, British Museum, retrieved 1 November 2014
- ↑ The wealth of Africa, British Museum, retrieved 1 November 2014
Further reading
- Mack, John (ed.) Africa, Arts and Cultures. London, 2005.
- Barley, Nigel. The Art of Benin. London: The British Museum Press, 2010.
- Ben-Amos, P. Girshick. The Art of Benin. London: The British Museum Press, 1995.