Page 184 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Esigie epoch on the basis of the Portuguese heads 67 Of the more than fifty ivory cups or fragments
forming a band above the forehead on both masks of cups usually referred to as saltcellars that are
and the rich decoration below the chin on the SALTCELLAR known to date, made by artists in Sierra Leone in
mask in the Metropolitan Museum. The reign of the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, this
the Oba Esigie (c. 1517-1550) witnessed numer- late i5th — early i6th century example is among the most impressive, not only
Sapi-Portuguese
ous contacts with the Portuguese. Oba Akenzua n ivory style, Sierra Leone for its extraordinary size but also its refined exe-
has in this century identified the masks as repre- height 43 (i6 /s) cution and sophisticated conception of volumes.
7
sentations of Idia, the powerful mother of King references: Ryder 1964, 363-365; Dittmer 1967, The decorative motifs and the iconography of the
Esigie, because of the presence of the Portuguese 183-238; Teixeira da Mota 1975, 384, 580-589; characters portrayed, which show unquestionable
heads (see Blackmun 1991, 59-60 and note 7). Grottanelli 1975, 14-23; Grottanelli 1976, 23-58; affinities of style with the production of stone
In the mask shown here the stylized Portuguese Bassani and Fagg 1988, fig. 135, and 75, 78 nomoli figures from Sierra Leone —and, above all,
heads (a motif that recurs almost unchanged on its formal syntax, with elements carved in the
Benin ivories and brass sculptures in later periods) Museo Nazionale Preistorico e Etnografico Luigi round alternating with surfaces left undecorated
Pigorini, Rome
alternate with mudfish, a symbol of the Oba, — allow us to assign this work to the Bulom
another recurrent motif in Benin art. Mudfish
also form a band above the forehead on the Stutt-
gart mask; the decoration below the chin, as in
the London and Seattle pieces, is an elaborate
guilloche design. The ornament on the forehead
of the Seattle ivory is composed of birds, which
have largely been lost. These similarities, along
with the almost identical treatment of facial fea-
tures, indicate that the works were almost cer-
tainly executed at the same time.
The presence of lugs above the ears suggests
that the masks were hung from a cord. Fagg
(1957) therefore concludes that the masks were
worn around the Oba's neck and not hung from a
belt like the smaller brass masks that decorated
the king's costumes in more recent times. A brass
mask similar to these ivory examples and of the
same size, assigned to the early period of Benin
art (Willett 1971, 108-109), belongs today to the
Atah of Idah, sovereign of the Igala (a people who
had contact, including warfare, with the Benin in
the past); he wears it during official ceremonies.
In support of Fagg's conjecture is a drawing dating
from 1832-1833 depicting an ancestor of the Atah
wearing this mask on his breast.
The facial features of the Metropolitan
Museum's mask are rendered with the usual
mixture of naturalism and stylization that char-
acterizes Benin works of the early period, harmo-
niously placed to form a design that is rigorous
and strictly symmetrical; the profile, at once deli-
cate and strong, has a musical rhythm. The details
are executed with great skill; the use of different
materials, such as copper for the outline of the
eyelids and iron for the pupils and the markings
on the forehead, is discreet and functional,
although, as Dark observes (Forman and Dark
1960, 25), quite different from the European
treatment of ivory.
The mask shown here and the example in
London, probably by the same hand, are among
the most beautiful ivories carved in Benin; their
maker, a master of his craft, was also an artist
of great refinement and sensitivity. The slightly
disquieting sense of impersonal coolness that
pervades these pieces reminds us of the expressive
conventions binding the Igbesanmwan, the
powerful guild of carvers of ivory in the service
of the Oba. E.B.

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 183