| Benin ivory mask | |
|---|---|
 One of four related ivory pendant masks, taken during thepunitive expedition of 1897. | |
| Material | Ivory, ironinlay |
| Height | 24.5cm |
| Width | 12.5cm |
| Depth | 6cm |
| Created | Sixteenth century AD |
| Discovered | Benin City |
| Present location | Metropolitan Museum of Art,British Museum,Seattle Art Museum,Linden Museum, private collection |
| Registration | 1978.412.323,Af1910,0513.1,81.17.493,F 50565 |
| Culture | Benin Court Art |
| Measurements are from the British Museum version; other versions have slightly different dimensions. | |
TheBenin ivory mask is a miniature sculptural portrait inivory ofIdia, the firstIyoba (Queen Mother) of the 16th centuryBenin Empire, taking the form of atraditional African mask.[1] The masks werelooted by the British from the palace of theOba of Benin in theBenin Expedition of 1897.[2]
Two almost identical masks are kept at theBritish Museum inLondon and at theMetropolitan Museum of Art inNew York City.[3][4] Both feature a serene face of the Queen Mother wearing abeaded headdress, a beadedchoker at her neck,scarification highlighted by ironinlay on the forehead, all framed by theflange of anopenworktiara and collar of symbolic beings, as well as double loops at each side for attachment of the pendant.[5]
Until its restitution in 2022 to Nigeria, theLinden Museum in Germany[6] had such a mask in its collection. Further, there are also similar masks at theSeattle Art Museum[7] and one in a private collection.[8][9]
The British Museum example in particular has also become a cultural emblem of modernNigeria sinceFESTAC 77, a major pan-African cultural festival held in Lagos, Nigeria in 1977, which chose as its official emblem a replica of the mask crafted byErhabor Emokpae.[10]
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In the early 16th century, the dynamicEsigie ruled theBenin Empire of theEdo people as itsOba.[11] He came to power asPortuguese explorersfirst made contact with the empire. The empire traded pepper, ivory, local textiles, and slaves for brass and coral beads. Esigie engaged in two major conflicts. First, his half-brother fought a protracted civil war over theline of succession that would crown Esigie, the firstborn. Second, Esigie successfully defended against an invasion from the northernIgala Kingdom and captured their leader.[12] Esigie rewarded his key political and mystical advisor during these trials, his motherIdia, with the title ofIyoba (Queen Mother)—the first in a tradition of Queen Mother advisors.[13] The identification with Idia was made by ObaAkenzua II in the mid-20th century.[14]
TheOba of Benin commissioned works from his guild of ivory and wood carvers, theIgbesanmwan. Their works were customized for their ruler, between the material connotations of ivory and the visual motifs in the carvings.[15] At least two of the masks feature Portuguese imagery (although this imagery outlasted the actual Portuguese presence)[16][17] and thus were likely created during Esigie's early-16th century rule (possiblyc. 1520),[18] either during Idia's life or soon after her death.[12] The similarities between the masks indicate that they were likely created at the same time[19] by the same artist.[12] Their details match the comparable carving qualities of ivory spoons andsalt cellars commissioned during the same period,[12] the early period ofBenin art, the phase of strongest affiliation with Ife orYoruba art.[20][21] Ivory works from Benin were mainly for the Oba to use in ritual.[22] The masks may have been used in ceremonies including the Ugie Iyoba commemoration of the Oba's mother, as well the Emobo purification ceremony to expel bad spirits from the land.[12][23][24] Similarpendant masks are mainly used in contemporary Emobo ceremonies focused on bad spirits, though the traditions of Emobo may have changed throughout history.[23]
Four rungs on the side of the masks, above and below each ear, let the masks hang in suspension[12] and indicate that the masks were suspended from a cord,[19] though experts have disagreed on how they were worn.[12][19] British Museum art historianWilliam Fagg concluded that unlike the small brass pendant masks worn at the waist by modern kings, the ivory mask was likely worn around the neck. An 1830s drawing of a similar mask worn at the breast by a neighboring ruler confirms Fagg's theory.[19] Based on the position of the rungs, Metropolitan curator Alisa LaGamma also affirmed the theory.[12] Benin specialist and anthropologist Paula Ben-Amos, however, wrote that the masks were worn on the waist as pendants during the Ugie Iyoba and Emobo ceremonies.[12] The hollow masks likely served asamuletic containers.[12] Below the mask's collars, the ring of small loops are attachment points forcrotal bells.[25]
They are made of ivory, long and ovular in shape,[26] and thinly carved, approaching semiopaqueness.[15] The similar British Museum and Metropolitan pendant masks have elaborate ornament at their hair and collar. Each mask's gaze is accentuated with iron inlay at its pupils and lower eye outline, and the eyes are slightly diverted by the eyelids.[26][27] This use of inlay departed from the ways in which Europeans used ivory.[19] Above the eyes, the foursupraorbital marks are associated with Benin women.[28] The masks' facial features are symmetrical and skillfully precise.[19] Their lips are parted, nostrils slightly flared, and hair dense with tiny coils and a rectilinear hairline.[12] The masks' expression of "impersonal coolness" reflected the stylistic conventions of the Oba's ivory carvers guild, with a naturalism typical of craft in early Benin art.[19]
The depiction of women is rare inBenin art,[4] though the position ofIdia, known toEdo tradition as "the only woman who went to war", is exceptional, and the very title ofIyoba or Queen Mother was created for her.[29] The headdress forms part of theukpe-okhue ("parrot's beak") hairstyle she originated, and is more clearly seen on theBronze Head of Queen Idia.[30] The depictedprecious coral of the headdress and choker are in the form of cylindricalileke ("royal") beads, which it was the specially-granted privilege of the Queen Mother to wear, being usually reserved for the Oba and theEdogun (war chief).[30][31][32][33] The Linden Museum mask also has a string of actualikiele beads of coral wrapped around its forehead.[34] These red beads and red cloth, once reserved for leadership figures, have in modern times been popularly adopted as elements of Edo traditional dress.
The foreheads of both masks were are inscribed with four verticalcicatrices over each eye, with inlays of a pair of iron strips highlighting thescarification.[35] Iron is also used in the pupils and rims of the eyes.[18]
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Ivory, both then and now, connotes royal wealth, power, and purity.[15] Ivory, already a luxury commodity in Africa, became increasingly coveted with the growth of the Europeanivory trade.[36] When an elephant was killed in Benin, the Oba received one tusk as a gift and was offered the other in sale. Thus, the Oba had many tusks and controlled the ivory trade.[37] Ivory is associated with theEdoorisha of the sea,Olokun. As this orisha gives wealth and fertility, it the spirit world's equivalent of the Benin Oba. Ivory gave wealth similar to Olokun, as it enticed the Portuguese merchants who, in turn, returned wealth to Benin.[37] The Portuguese belonged to Olokun, having arrived from the sea.[22] The whiteness of ivory also reflects the symbolism of white chalk, whose ritual purity is associated withOlokun.[37][38][39]
Theopenwork of the tiara and collar represent tiny heads of Portuguese men in the tiara of both the Met and the British Museum examples, with eleven figures in the British Museum mask, and in the Met mask seven figures of Portuguese men alternating with six representations of mudfish, theWest African lungfish.[34] The Portuguese, who had only recently arrived in the area, were a symbol of power and affluence to the royal court.[12] Their iconography is identifiable by their long hair, hanging mustaches (often described as bearded), and domed hats.[15] Benin art historian Barbara Blackmun interprets these crown adornments as a reference to Idia's ability to conduct the Portuguese power to her son's favor.[13] Mudfish were a common theme in Benin royal arts,[12] and reflected the divinity of the Oba.[22] Edo cosmology believed that spirits crossed the ocean to reach the afterlife, where their leaders lived like gods. As creatures who could live on land and sea, the mudfish symbolized theduality needed for the leader's final journey,[12] and this duality represents the seafaring Portuguese as well.[4][40] The mudfish also appear in a pattern on the Linden Museum mask's crown, while the private collection mask's crown has bird elements, also formerly present on the similar Seattle Art Museum mask.[19] The masks also differ in pattern along their bottom, collar edges. The collar of the Met example is similarly decorated with eleven Portuguese men (with damage on its proper right side), while the collar of the British Museum mask is instead an abstractguillochélatticework.[12][19]
During the 1897punitiveBenin Expedition, the British looted a group of similar ivory masks in the Oba's palacebedroom. The expedition's civil leaderRalph Moor took the two finest masks, which were later collected by British anthropologistCharles Gabriel Seligman and transferred to the LondonMuseum of Mankind (now theBritish Museum) and the New YorkMuseum of Primitive Art (now theMetropolitan Museum of Art). Two additional masks from the bedchamber group were taken by the British and now reside in the collections of theSeattle Art Museum (formerlyPrincipal Medical Officer Robert Allman) and theLinden Museum inStuttgart (formerlyW. D. Webster[41] and thenAugustus Pitt Rivers),[20] and there is one in a private collection of the heirs ofHenry Galway.[9]
Five to six masks of this type[42] were found in a large chest in 1897 in the bedchamber of the then-reigning ObaOvonramwen, the ruler at the Benin court. They were taken at a time of great civil unrest during the British punitiveBenin Expedition of 1897, the British burned the royal palaces of the Oba and the Queen Mother and looted thousands of ivory, brass and wood artworks from theancestral altars, private quarters and storerooms and many were sold in England to western museums and collectors to offset the cost of the expedition.[43][9] The British Museum's pendant was purchased in 1910 from the British anthropologist ProfCharles Gabriel Seligman.[17]
The Met's mask was acquired in 1972 as a gift ofNelson Rockefeller.[4] He founded theMuseum of Primitive Art in 1954 after the Metropolitan Museum did not reciprocate his interest inPrecolumbian art. The museum collected works for their artistic—and not anthropological—value,[44] contrasting with the earlier history ofAfrican art in Western collections. TheQueens College art historianRobert Goldwater became its director and recommended acquisitions.[45] His argument to collect the ivory pendant mask was among his longest, at the end of 1957. He called it "the best object of its kind known, nor will any others ever turn up". Goldwater wrote that the mask was higher in quality than the similar, renowned one owned by the British Museum. The mask, he predicted, would redefine the collection and go on permanent display, on par with theMuseum of Modern Art's well-knownSleeping Gypsy (1897) byHenri Rousseau. Rockefeller purchased the mask at a record price and unveiled it in September 1958. The purchase solidified a policy that Goldwater believed the museum should center around permanent collections ofmasterworks.[46]
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The Benin Pendant Mask has become aniconic image of Benin art, and theBritish Museum version in particular was featured on Nigerianone Naira banknotes in 1973,[47] and was chosen as the official emblem of the pan-AfricanistFESTAC 77 cultural festival in 1977, so that this design is often known in modern Nigeria as the FESTAC Mask.[48][49] The Nigerian government was unsuccessful in securing a loan of the work from the British Museum, and commissioned Edo artistErhabor Emokpae to recreate the mask as a 20-foot tall bronze centerpiece for the festival (on display at theNational Arts Theatre since 1979).[10][50] He also designed a FESTAC flag[51] with the mask as central charge on an unequally banded black-gold-blackvertical tricolor, and being responsible for the event's extensive graphic design.[52] Another Edo artist,Felix Idubor, was commissioned to carve two replica masks in ivory for theNigerian National Museum.[53] A 150 kg bronze reproduction was also donated to UNESCO in 2005.[54]
TheMet's Queen Mother pendant mask is considered among the museum's most celebrated works.[46] African art historian Ezio Bassani wrote that the profile of the Met's mask was "at once delicate and strong" with a "musical rhythm", and that its use of iron and copper inlay was both "discreet and functional".[19] He wrote that the Metropolitan and British Museum masks were among the most beautiful ivories carved in Benin, and that their artist was both refined and sensitive.[19] Kate Ezra wrote that the mask's thinness showcased the "sensitivity and solemnity" of early Benin art.[15]
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