Africa, Nigeria, Edo, Benin City / Head of a King / 1600s

Africa, Nigeria, Edo, Benin City
Head of a King
1600s
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Creator Name: Unknown
Creator Nationality: Nigerian
Creator Name-CRT: Africa, Nigeria, Edo, Benin City
Title: Head of a King
Title Type: Primary
View: Detail
Creation Start Date: 1600
Creation End Date: 1699
Creation Date: 1600s
Object Type: Sculpture
Materials and Techniques: bronze
Dimensions: Overall: 29.9cm x 21.6cm x 20.4cm
AMICA Contributor: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number: 1938.6
Credit Line: Dudley P. Allen Fund
Rights: http://www.clemusart.com/museum/disclaim2.html
Style or Period: Africa, Nigeria, Edo, Benin City
Context: The powerful Benin kingdom of southern Nigeria was noted for its ancient, refined artistic traditions. Benin witnessed a remarkable flowering of the arts from about 1400 to 1900 -- mainly sponsored by the king. One of the site that received much artistic attention was the altar for the king's ancestors containing bronze heads, bells, sculptures, wooden rattle staffs, carved ivory tusks, and other objects that commemorated the power and spiritual presence of past rulers.The altar's centerpiece was a bronze head representing a departed ruler. It was cast by the 'lost-wax' (cire perdue) method, whereby the sculpture was first modelled in wax, covered in clay, and then heated to melt off the wax, which was thus 'lost' and replaced by molten bronze. The head supports an elaborately carved ivory tusk that symbolizes the awesome spiritual powers emanating from the king's sacred head. The museum's tusk dates to the 1800s. Together, the head and the carved tusk document a span of nearly three centuries of Benin art history.
AMICA ID: CMA_.1938.6
AMICA Library Year: 2000
Media Metadata Rights:

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