Page 191 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

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Despite the presence of the
Portuguese coats
OLIPHANT of arms and the figures of hunters, the typically
i6th century African structure of the three oliphants makes one
Bini-Portuguese style, Nigeria wonder whether they were carved for export or
ivory rather for the use of the sovereign of Benin him-
l
length 57 (22 /i) self, who might have requested the European
reference: Bassani and Fagg 1988 motifs for their prestige and exotic nature. It is
Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum fur Volkerkunde also possible and perhaps more probable that the
der Stadt Koln oliphants were indeed commissioned in Benin by
a European, but that the rigid academic training
given to artists belonging to the Igbesanmwan
This instrument belongs to a group of three (the guild of carvers of ivory who worked for the
extant Bini-Portuguese oliphants (Bassani and Oba) led them to conform to indigenous canons
Fagg 1988, nos. 111-113). Their close similarity even when they were working for a foreign client.
indicates that they were almost certainly carved E.B.
by the same artist within a relatively brief period.
Thus they represent a circumscribed episode
in the cultural exchange between Benin and
Portugal.
The oliphants differ substantially from the
Sapi-Portuguese examples (cat. 70) in both form
and decoration. They are more like native African 78
instruments than those designed for export to
Europe. The three Bini horns have no rings for OLIPHANT
attaching cords, and in each case the rectangular
mouthpiece is placed on the outside curve of i6th century
the tusk, a position that is documented only in Kongo-Portuguese style (?), Zaire or Angola
indigenous Bini and Yoruba instruments. The ivory (i2 / 8)
5
length 83
oliphant exhibited here could be compared to a references: Brasio 1952, 113, vol. r, Bassani 1975,
typical Bini horn like the one in Vienna, decorated 143; Bassani 1981; Bassani and Fagg 1988
with the figure of an Ob a riding an elephant,
a metaphor for power. Museo degli Argenti, Palazzo Pitti f Florence
The head of an animal at the narrow end of
the oliphant, from whose teeth the mouthpiece The two splendid horns in the Museo degli
appears in Sapi-Portuguese instruments, serves Argenti in Florence, one of which is exhibited
here as a purely decorative element. here, are the very earliest identifiable sculptures
The bas-relief decorations that cover the entire from Africa to have been registered in a European
surface of the oliphant are a skillful combination inventory. Other works mentioned in even earlier
of geometric elements typical of the Bini figura- documents have either been lost or confused with
tive tradition—basket weave, lozenge, and guil- objects found in more recent times. These two
loche patterns — and European motifs. The latter oliphants appear to correspond to the "2 ivory
include the coat of arms of the House of Aviz, the horns worked in intaglio" described in both the
ruling family of Portugal, surmounted by a rich General Inventory and the Wardrobe Inventory
crown, an armillary sphere, and small stiff figures of the possessions of Cosimo I de'Medici in 1553
of hunters with lance, sword, and dogs, confined (Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Guardaroba Medi-
to a narrow transverse band. In terms of both ico- cea, vol. 30, c. i34r and vol. 36, c. i34v). This
nography and placement, the coats of arms of the brief description fits the two instruments per-
reigning house of Portugal strongly recall those fectly, although it does not completely guarantee
appearing in miniature in a manuscript volume, their identity. Combined with my analysis of
the Livro Carmesin, containing documents of the a series of archival elements, however (Bassani
Lisbon administration from 1502 to 1796 (Arquivo 1975,143), the connection is highly probable.
Historico da Camara Municipal, Lisbon). The two ivories in the Museo degli Argenti are
The evident horror vacui that characterizes this part of a group of seven known instruments, all
artist's work and the presence in two of the horns, having a very elegant line and a surface entirely
among other traditional motifs, of a border design covered with bas-relief decorations in a refined
consisting of a single line of steps framing the interwoven design based on Greek frets and
armillary sphere (Bassani and Fagg 1988, nos. lozenges. Analogies of shape and decoration are
111-112; on no. 113 the coat of arms does not strong enough to attribute the seven oliphants to
appear) — a motif used only by carvers in Benin — the same artist, a highly talented master from the
enabled William Fagg to establish the Bini origin Kongo, the great kingdom reached in 1482 by
of the three horns. Diogo Cao.

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