Palace Plaque of a War Chief, Warriors and Attendants

Former TitleOba and Attendants

CultureBenin Kingdom

Date17th century

MediumBrass

DimensionsOverall: 14 3/4 × 15 1/2 inches (37.47 × 39.37 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number58-3

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

African Art

Terms

Gallery Label

During the 16th and 17th centuries, royal brass-casting guilds created elaborately detailed plaques depicting court rituals and state ceremonies for the pillars and walls of the king's palace. On this plaque, a war chief in coral-bead regalia, flanked by warriors and attendants, raises a ceremonial eben sword in a gesture of honor and allegiance during the annual Igue ceremony to fortify the king's mystical powers. The incised quatrefoil background of river-plant leaves situates this court ritual within the realm of Olokun, god of the waters, wealth, well-being and fertility.

Published References

Lieutenant-General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, Antique Works of Art from Benin (Published Privately, 1900), 54, (repro., plate 27, fig. 179).

Felix von Luschan, Die Altertümer von Benin (Berlin and Leipzig: Vereinigung wissenschaftlicher Verleger, Walter De Gruyter & Vo, 1919), 109-110, 128, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 253, (repro.).

Franco Monti, Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art, vol. 7, les arts primitives (Paris: Hachette, 1964), 1372, (repro.).

Sir John Rothenstein, ed., New International Illustrated Encyclopedia of Art, vol. 1 (New York: Greystone Press, 1967), 77, (repro.).

Michael Batterberry and Ariane Ruskin, Primitive Art (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973), 143-44, (repro).

Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 240-41, (repro.).

Richard L. Anderson, Art in Primitive Societies (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1979), 136-37, (repro.).

Philip J.C. Dark, An Illustrated Catalogue of Benin Art (Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1982), 2.1.3.

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 228-29, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 84, (repro.).

Joyce M. Youmans, “African Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” African Arts 33, no. 4 (Winter 2000), 41, 43, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 243, 245, (repro.).

Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch, The Benin Plaques: A 16th Century Imperial Monument (New York: Routledge, 2018), 227.

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