Pendant

Object Details

Benin kingdom court style

Edo artist

Label Text

Chiefs of all ranks wear a copper alloy pendant in the form of a human or leopard face on their left hips when dressed in full court regalia. This tradition is documented in the dress of figures on palace plaques from the 17th century.

This pendant depicts an Edo man, identified by the three raised scars over each eye. He is a person of rank, as shown by his openwork cap of coral beads with bead clusters. An association with spiritual power is represented by the collar of mythical fish or mudfish, emblems of transformation and survival.

Unfortunately, later Western applications of pigment and polish have obscured the natural patina. Originally this casting would have displayed the caster's expertise through its varied colored metals: inlaid iron pupils, a textured brass strip on the nose and alternating alloys of copper in the fish.

Description

Cast copper alloy pendant mask in the form of a human face with openwork lattice headdress, beard of nine mudfish and iron inlay eyes.

Provenance

Aaron Furman Gallery, New York, -- to 1959

Joseph H. Hirshhorn, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1959 to 1966

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1966 to 1985

Exhibition History

Currents: Water in African Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 2016-ongoing (deinstalled November 22, 2021)

Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 22, 2013-February 23, 2014; Fowler Museum at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles, April 19-September 14, 2014; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, October 15, 2015-March 9, 2016

Published References

Freyer, Bryna. 1987. Royal Benin Art in the Collection of the National Museum of African Art. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 57, no. 11.

Milbourne, Karen E. 2013. Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa. New York: The Monacelli Press; Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 105, no. 80.

Moffett, Dana and Stephen P. Mellor. 2003. The Curator-Conservator Collaboration: Remembering Roy Sieber." African Arts 36 (2), pp. 46-47, no. 4.

Schrenk, J. L. 1994. The Royal Art of Benin: Surfaces, Past and Present. Ancient and Historic Metals. Proceedings of a symposium organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and Getty Conservation Institute, November 1991. Ed. D. A. Scott, J. Podany and B. Considine. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust.

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Credit Line

Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn to the Smithsonian Institution in 1966

Late 18th to mid-19th century

Object number

85-19-5

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

Jewelry

Medium

Copper alloy, iron

Dimensions

H x W x D: 21 × 14 × 6.4 cm (8 1/4 × 5 1/2 × 2 1/2 in.)

Geography

Nigeria

See more items in

National Museum of African Art Collection

Object Name

uhunmwun ekhue

National Museum of African Art

Topic

Status

Adornment

mudfish

male

Record ID

nmafa_85-19-5

Metadata Usage (text)

Usage conditions apply

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys7e5bb18fe-b596-418a-978f-c5cdcb27ba0d