Page 179 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

A number of heads slightly smaller than life male heads "are impersonal in character because
and showing similar characteristics have been they represent not the late king as an individual,
grouped together, including the head shown here but the authority which he transmits to his suc-
(Freyer 1987, i), which William Fagg has assigned cessors/' This thesis presupposes, however, the
to the early period of Benin art, from the early use of the heads in succession rituals, but we have
fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century (Elisofon no conclusive proof of this, only conjectures that
and Fagg 1958, 62-65; Fagg 1963, 32). do not always agree.
These heads are products of a refined, mature Paula Ben-Amos (1980,18) advances the fasci-
technology, differing from later works in several nating theory that these are trophy heads, citing
respects: the thinness of the metal (no more as support a tradition reported by a member of
than a millimeter at certain points), the sober the caster's guild, Chief Ihama, according to
representation, and the superbly refined model- which "in the old days they used to cut off the
ing. The nose and mouth are regular; the pupils head of (conquered) kings and bring it to the Oba
of the open eyes are of iron inlay, as are the ethnic who would send it to our guild for casting. They
markings on the forehead flanked by four keloids did not necessarily cast heads of all the captured
above each eye (see Nevadomsky 1986, 42 for a rulers, but just the most stubborn among them. If
discussion of these markings). The flattened ears it happened that the senior son of a rebel king was
are the most stylized feature of the heads. The put on the throne, the Oba would send him the
only decorative elements are the hairstyle in the cast head of his father to warn him how his father
form of a cap of overlapping bands of tight parallel was dealt with." The close similarity between the
curls and the coral bead collar around the neck, hairstyle of the Benin heads of the early period
with its insistent horizontality in harmonious and that of an Igbo man (photographed at the
contrast to the strong vertically of the hairstyle, beginning of this century and published by Paula
all executed with great subtlety. Ben-Amos) supports the hypothesis that the
The heads from subsequent periods are more ancient male heads represent a foreigner and not
massive and imposing, and the collar becomes so the dead Oba. However, this explanation does not
important as to cover altogether the bottom part seem to account for the stylization and resulting
Of the approximately two thousand artworks of the face; the hairstyle is covered by a cap of impersonal nature of the heads.
taken from Benin after the British punitive expe- coral beads, and several decades before the arrival Despite the mystery surrounding their origin
dition in 1897, the vast majority of works were of the English this cap was enriched by two wings and function, the early Benin heads are a valuable
metal objects made by the "lost wax" casting pro- at the sides of the forehead. A large round open- testimony to the skill of the Benin sculptors and
cess. However, the word bronze, frequently used ing at the top of the head, which cannot be to their ability to work creatively within the con-
to describe ancient Nigerian sculptures, whether explained on technical grounds (Dark 1973, 39), text of an authoritarian and highly formal court
from Ife or Benin, is often incorrect, as most of recalls a similar characteristic of Ife heads. In culture. E.B.
these works were actually cast in an alloy of Benin heads from Fagg's "later" group, the
copper and zinc rather than copper and tin. Thus openings allowed the heads to support carved
brass is really the more appropriate word, except ivory tusks.
in the case of the male heads of the "early period" Commentators have often remarked on the 6l
(like the one exhibited), for which the designation stylization of the Benin heads, as compared to the QUEEN MOTHER HEAD
low tin bronze is the most suitable. earlier Ife examples. According to Fagg (1963, 32),
The earliest efforts to cast cupreous alloys the heads of the early period show the Benin i6th century
in Benin are enshrouded in myth (see Ben-Amos artists' attempt to adopt the spirit as well as the Edo peoples, Benin kingdom, Nigeria
1980,15-18 for a discussion). According to one letter of the "sensitive naturalism" of Ife heads, cast copper alloy and iron
oral tradition, at the death of the Oba (king) the even though in comparison the Benin heads "are 51 (20)
head of the dead sovereign was sent to Ife, where in detail considerably more stylized and also references: Dapper 1686, 311; Luschan 1919;
a commemorative image in bronze was made rather less individualized. Those which appear to Underwood 1949, 20; Eghareva 1953; Elisofon and
64;
and then taken to Benin. This practice continued be by a single hand are very clearly similar to each Fagg 1958, 1991, Forman and Dark 1960; Fagg 1963;
Blackmun
59—60
until Oguola, the sixth Oba (who reigned around other in expression and features, and may there-
1400), sent for a master founder named Ighue- fore represent the artist's 'ideal portrait' rather Nigerian National Museum, Lagos
ghae, who came from Ife to teach Benin artists the than an attempt to represent individuals."
casting technique. Thereafter the presumed com- Philip C. Dark (Forman and Dark 1960, 21), In the first half of the sixteenth century the Oba
memorative heads were made in Benin by Igh- referring to a Benin head similar to this one, Esigye conferred the title of "Queen Mother" on
ueghae's followers, who belonged to a guild, the notes that it is not "close stylistically to the his mother, Idia, who had helped him in his strug-
Iguneromwon, exclusively in the service of the known examples of bronze heads discovered at gle for power. In giving her this title, he institu-
Oba. Among the body of works found in Benin, Ife," since it is "stylized and generalized, showing tionalized the role of the king's mother and
no head can be attributed with reasonable cer- no real evidence of an attempt at meeting the defined its position in the kingdom's complex
tainty to Ife artists, so there is no material proof requirements of naturalistic portraiture." For hierarchy (Eghareva 1953; Blackmun 1991,
to confirm that oral tradition. However, Philip C. example, the slight asymmetry that renders the 59-60).
Dark (1973, 9) advances the hypothesis that Ife heads so expressive is missing completely in About a century later, in the monumental work
because of the scarcity of metal before the Portu- the Benin pieces, characterized instead by strongly on Africa by the Dutch scholar Olfert Dapper, a
guese arrived in Benin, the heads brought from symmetrical features. chapter on Benin, based on the report of an
Ife could have been melted down to provide mate- R. E. Bradbury, in a personal communication unknown author, confirmed the high status of the
rial for new works. reported by Dark (1973,18), observes that the Queen Mother, her participation in affairs of state

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