Object ID
1955.22
Institution
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College Edo designations
English designations
Pendant Mask
Categories
Ceremonial Regalia
Location
87 N Main St, Oberlin, OH 44074, United States
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Provenance
4
events
Institution data
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College
The data was transferred directly by the institution.
Last updated: 2021-07-09
Language: english
| Institution field | Value |
|---|---|
Object ID object id | 1955.22 |
Primary Title edo designation | Uhunmwun-Ekhue (Leopard Hip Ornament) |
Object Name designation | ornament |
Label Text description | Working at the request of the oba (ruler), the Benin Kingdom’s prestigious royal brass-casting guild has for centuries produced ceremonial works for the royal palace at Benin City. Made from metals acquired in a lucrative trade with Europeans, their creations served as records of the kingdom’s wealth and traditions. This ornament depicts a leopard, the oba’s sacred animal. Military officers or court officials wore it to symbolize their social status and authority to take human life. Worn at the waist along with other pendant-masks depicting ancestral spirits, this object was distinguished by its small bells, which jangled as the owner walked. In February of 1897, the British army invaded Benin City, exiled the oba, and looted the kingdom’s treasures. The AMAM acknowledges the looted status of this work, and is committed to open dialogue about its proper display and care. |
Text description | Brass leopard head ornaments such as this were given by the Benin monarch to his war officers, who wore them slung at the hips. The ornament signified that the ruler had delegated to the wearer the authority to take human life. From the fieenth through the nineteenth century, the powerful Benin Kingdom spread throughout southern Nigeria. Although the oba,1 a divine king, ruled the state, his many chiefs helped in its administra_on. They were organized in a highly hierarchical system, and costume elements reflected their rank. Brass, s_ll a precious metal in Benin today, could in the past only be worn with the oba's permission.2 Brass pendants, worn at the hip, took the form of human, ram, crocodile, baboon, and leopard heads. The oba was the only person in Benin who had the right to take human life, and the leopard was his symbol. When he delegated his power to kill to his war leaders, he gave them a leopard head pendant.3 The oba also wore leopard head pendants, but his were carved from ivory--a material forbidden the chiefs by sumptuary laws--and were usually worn in mul_ples around his waist.4 The Oberlin pendant shows a leopard with pouched cheeks, large slanted eyes (the proper le eye set slightly higher than the right), and a nose with pierced nostrils. The par_ally open mouth reveals a tongue caught between two rows of teeth, which include prominent incisors. Three ropelike raised whiskers flank either side of the mouth, and the leaflike ears are placed close together on the narrow forehead. The leopard has raised spots, differing in diameter and degree of relief; the surrounding surface is s_ppled. Two semicircular flanges are placed behind the head. The top flange is narrower and is filled with an openwork interlace paern, while the boom flange displays a somewhat crooked, openwork crosshatch paern. Both are edged with an s-spiral border. Theboom flange addi_onally includes a row of rings that were originally hung with jingling crotals. The mask was aached to the costume by the two cast-on rings on the back, located on the top and boom. Several southern Nigerian cultures historically produced brass hip pendants.5 The Oberlin leopard pendant is, however, clearly from Benin. It follows stylis_c conven_ons established in Benin brass by at least the sixteenth century, when standing figures of horn-blowers or military officers were depicted on figura_ve plaques wearing similar pendants. A Benin leopard pendant which appeared in a recent auc_on was aributed by William Fagg to the sixteenth century. 6 Slightly smaller than the Oberlin example, its facial modeling is more pronounced; it includes inlaid iron eyes, but lacks the raised spots. Barbara Blackmun dates the Oberlin pendant to the seventeenth or eighteenth century, a convincing conclusion based on its style, quality, and weight.7 Human head pendants from Benin are quite common, but only about fiy leopard head ornaments survive.8 Several have been published in sales9 or collec_on catalogues,10 but none are iden_cal in treatment or form to the unusually large Oberlin example. Leopard spots are oen rendered as flat circles, although some pendants have raised copper insets. Many examples include flanges, although they are seldom so elaborately constructed. Crotals, raised whiskers, and s_ppling are also common. Almost all known brass leopard pendants are cast, although a few nineteenth-century examples are made from beaten sheet brass. The leopard was, and is, a widespread symbol of authority and rulership in southern Nigeria, conferring by associa_on the animal's characteris_c beauty and elegance, as well as its deadliness, speed, and surety, upon the wearer. Since Oba Ewuare's reign in the mid fieenth century, the leopard has been inextricably iden_fied with the monarchy12 Before he was crowned, Ewuare lived in exile, wandering in the wilderness. One day he awoke to feel blood dripping on his face. He looked up and saw a leopard res_ng on an overhanging branch, an antelope in its jaws. Interpre_ng his survival as a sign of luck and an omen of future kingship, he demonstrated his mastery by killing the animal. Ewuare subsequently decreed that all future obas should sacrifice a leopard at least once during their reign.13 Seventeenth-century European visitors saw semitame leopards at the Benin court.14 In precolonial _mes, several highly respected royal guilds dealt with the leopard,15 the oba's animal counterpart. When a leopard, dead or alive, was brought before the oba, its face was covered, for, as a Benin proverb states, "Two obas can't see each other's faces." K. Curnow |
Medium material | Brass |
Dimensions dimensions | Overall: 8 1/2 × 5 7/8 × 3 1/4 in. (21.6 × 14.9 × 8.3 cm) |
Classification object type | Metalwork |
Date Label date made | 18th century |
Artist/Maker producer | Edo peoples, Benin, Nigeria |
Ex collection prior source | J. J. Klejman Gallery, New York |
Credit Line provenance | Friends of Art Fund |
Provenance/0 provenance | J. J. Klejman Gallery, New York, until 1955; [1] Allen Memorial Art Museum, purchased from J. J. Klejman Gallery, New York. |
Provenance/1 provenance | The leopard pendant was purchased for the museum in 1955 from the African art dealer J. J. Klejman of New York. He had bought this piece earlier in the year and, in a leer wrien to the museum, said it was "brought to Europe by one of the high officers who commanded the puni_ve expedi_on." The 1897 Puni_ve Expedi_on resulted in the Bri_sh colonial rule. By the late nineteenth century, the Bri_sh had extended poli_cal and mercan_le control over parts of southern Nigeria through trade and "protec_on" trea_es. In 1897 the Ac_ng Consul-General James Phillips decided to visit Benin City to pursue a stronger trade agreement with the then-independent kingdom. The oba asked Phillips to delay his trip un_l a fes_val ended, since strangers were barred from entering the city during its celebra_on. Ignoring the oba's message, Phillips and eight other Britons--accompanied by several hundred African porters--advanced towards Benin. Insulted by their ac_ons, Benin's generals intercepted the party and killed most of them. In swi retalia_on, the Bri_sh Navy undertook a puni_ve aack. They conquered the kingdom, tried and executed several chiefs, and exonerated but exiled the oba himself. He died in 1914, but the Bri_sh allowed his son to be crowned; his grandson rules today as the thirty-eighth monarch of the present dynasty. During the Bri_sh conquest, the city burned, and thousands of palace and chiefly treasures were taken as booty. Some of these objects were sold in Lagos, Nigeria; others were auc_oned by the Foreign Office in London to benefit the widows of Bri_sh Soldiers killed during the Puni_ve Expedi_on. Many choice items remained in private hands; the Oberlin ornament was apparently one of these private souvenirs. |
Culture ethnic attribution | West African |
Department department and institution | African Art and Oceania |
Footnotes notes | 1. The oba, or king, of Benin holds a hereditary posi_on that follows the rules of primogeniture. Although the Bri_sh colonized Benin in 1897 and Nigeria became independent in 1960, Benin's monarchy survives. While the oba and his chiefs no longer direct economic affairs or create state policy, they s_ll have strong ceremonial and religious roles, and retain poli_cal influence. 2. The pendant's polished brass surface was not only aesthe_cally pleasing, but also protec_ve, for as Barbara Blackmun ("The Face of the Leopard: Its Significance in Benin Court Art," Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulle_n 44, no. 2 [1991], p. 29) observed, it was believed to deflect "hos_le spiritual energies by turning their malevolence back upon the ins_gators." Brass was also an expression of wealth and status, and Benin eagerly imported this metal once trade with Europe was established. 3. Warriors were adorned with numerous references to the leopard. Depending on their rank, these included leopard tooth necklaces, actual leopard skins, simulated skins made from leather-trimmed cloth, and hip pendants in the form of a leopard's head or the even rarer full leopard, which was worn by the Iyase, the leader of the war chiefs. 4. A sixteenth-century plaque in the Bri_sh Museum, London (inv. 98.1-15.43), includes a depic_on of the oba wearing three leopard pendants; they seem flaer than the Oberlin pendant and were probably made of ivory. See Philip J. C. Dark, An Illustrated Catalogue of Benin Art (Boston, 1982), fig. 59. 5. The ninth- or tenth-century Igbo site of Igbo Ukwu, to Benin's east, yielded examples of cast elephant, ram, human, and leopard head pendants; see Thurstan Shaw, Igbo-Ukwu (Evanston, Ill., 1970), passim. An eleventh- or twelh-century terracoa figure from the Yoruba site of Ile-Ife, to Benin's west, wears a ram's head pendant at the hip. The work is now in the collec_on of the Department of Archaeology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria; illustrated in Henry J. Drewal, John Pemberton, with Rowland Abiodun, Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought (New York, 1989), p. 60. 6. Willam Fagg, One Hundred Notes on Nigerian Art from Chris_e's Catalogues, 1974-1990 (Milan, 1991), pp. 67-68. 7. Barbara Blackmun ("The Face of the Leopard: Its Significance in Benin Court Art," Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulle_n 44, no. 2 [1991], p. 34 n. 1) summarizes the literature on the da_ng of Benin art, and states that while the Oberlin face is similar to pendants depicted in seventeenthcentury reliefs, the weight of the brass and the style of the flanges appear to be eighteenth century. 8. Philip J. C. Dark, An Illustrated Catalogue of Benin Art (Boston, 1982), p. 2.4.10. 9. See for example, London (Chris_e's), 5 December 1973, p. 29; sale New York (Parke-Bernet), 22 April 1965, p. 25. 10. A fine example is at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; dimensions, inv. 191.17.36. Reproduced in Kate Ezra, Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collec_on (exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1992), p. 167. 11. See Philip J. C. Dark, The Art of Benin (exh. cat., Chicago Natural History Museum, 1962), pl. 21. 12. Many of the oba's praise names refer to him as the leopard (ekpen owa) of the home, as opposed to his forest counterpart, the leopard of the bush (ekpen oha). Because the oba is a divine king, it is sacrilegious to speak of him as partaking in ordinary human ac_vi_es. When the oba is sleeping, cour_ers say, "The leopard is in the shelter"; when he is ill, they say, "The leopard is sick in the wilderness." 13. Ewuare's decision concerning a sacrifice is said to have been the beginning of the formalized ritual of Igue, the sacrifice to one's head. The head is considered the seat of an individual's good fortune, and Igue is performed to ensure a man realizes his maximum poten_al. The proverb, "The leopard has a good head, that is why he has the beads," reinforces this linkage between the oba(whose coral-beaded are exemplifies his own wealth, achievement, and Igue benefits) and the leopard. 14. Leashed leopards formed part of the oba's fes_val procession; see Olfert Dapper's seventeenth-century account, cited in Thomas Hodgkin, Nigerian Perspec_ves (Oxford, 1975), p. 169. Unchained, they could act as warders. In 1652, a Spanish Capuchin missionary complained, "That night we were kept under guard, and the next day...[they] took us to a grove where we remained in the company of five leopards who watched us"; see A. F. C. Ryder, "The Benin Missions," Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 2, no. 1 (1961), p. 245. 15. Different guilds cared for the oba's pet leopards, or hun_ng bush leopards, treated their pelts, and processed other body parts for use as medicines. See Barbara Blackmun, "The Face of the Leopard: Its Significance in Benin Court Art," Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulle_n 44, no. 2 (1991), p. 31. 16. Even today, all guilds working with metal belong to the Igun sector, which has separate branches to work iron and brass. Membership in these groups is hereditary, and only males are involved in the work. The brass casters live in one neighborhood and today are composed of numerous lineages. Philip J. C. Dark, An Introduc_on to Benin Art and Technology (Oxford, 1973), p. 51. 17. Philip J. C. Dark, An Introduc_on to Benin Art and Technology (Oxford, 1973), p. 52. 18. Nearly all Benin brass were produced by this method; some fieenth-century works were only a millimeter thick. |
Notes notes | [1] According to a letter from J. J. Klejman of March 15, 1955, the work "was brought to Europe by one of the high officers who commanded the punic [sic] expedition to the Benin Kingdom in 1897." |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/0/Begin Date exhibition history | 4/12/55 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/0/End Date exhibition history | 4/24/55 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/0/Exhibition Title exhibition history | Friends of Art: Members' Choice |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/0/Object Count exhibition history | 1 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/0/Venue exhibition history | Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin OH |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/0/Venue Begin exhibition history | 4/12/55 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/0/Venue End exhibition history | 4/24/55 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/1/Begin Date exhibition history | 2/6/56 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/1/End Date exhibition history | 3/6/56 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/1/Exhibition Title exhibition history | African Art |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/1/Object Count exhibition history | 1 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/1/Venue exhibition history | Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin OH |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/1/Venue Begin exhibition history | 2/6/56 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/1/Venue End exhibition history | 3/6/56 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/2/Begin Date exhibition history | 5/30/62 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/2/End Date exhibition history | 10/30/62 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/2/Exhibition Title exhibition history | An American University Collection: Works of Art from the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/2/Object Count exhibition history | 1 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/2/Venue exhibition history | Kenwood House, London |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/2/Venue Begin exhibition history | 5/30/62 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/2/Venue End exhibition history | 10/30/62 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/3/Begin Date exhibition history | 3/5/63 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/3/End Date exhibition history | 3/26/63 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/3/Exhibition Title exhibition history | Oberlin Friends of Art: 25 Years of Collecting |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/3/Object Count exhibition history | 1 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/3/Venue exhibition history | Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin OH |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/3/Venue Begin exhibition history | 3/5/63 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/3/Venue End exhibition history | 3/26/63 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/4/Begin Date exhibition history | 3/5/72 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/4/End Date exhibition history | 3/31/72 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/4/Exhibition Title exhibition history | African Art – The Regalia of Kingship |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/4/Object Count exhibition history | 1 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/4/Venue exhibition history | Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin OH |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/4/Venue Begin exhibition history | 3/5/72 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/4/Venue End exhibition history | 3/31/72 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/5/Begin Date exhibition history | 1/2/02 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/5/End Date exhibition history | 6/2/02 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/5/Exhibition Title exhibition history | A Matter of Taste: The African Collection at the Allen Memorial Art Museum |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/5/Object Count exhibition history | 1 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/5/Venue exhibition history | Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin OH |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/5/Venue Begin exhibition history | 1/2/02 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/5/Venue End exhibition history | 6/2/02 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/6/Begin Date exhibition history | 9/24/07 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/6/End Date exhibition history | 6/22/08 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/6/Exhibition Title exhibition history | From Africa to America |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/6/Object Count exhibition history | 1 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/6/Venue exhibition history | Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin OH |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/6/Venue Begin exhibition history | 9/24/07 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/6/Venue End exhibition history | 6/22/08 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/7/Begin Date exhibition history | 9/1/09 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/7/End Date exhibition history | 12/23/09 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/7/Exhibition Title exhibition history | Engaging Spirits, Empowering Man: Sculpture of Central and West Africa |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/7/Object Count exhibition history | 1 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/7/Venue exhibition history | Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin OH |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/7/Venue Begin exhibition history | 9/1/09 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/7/Venue End exhibition history | 12/23/09 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/8/Begin Date exhibition history | 1/1/10 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/8/End Date exhibition history | 7/1/11 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/8/Exhibition Title exhibition history | Long-Term Loan |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/8/Object Count exhibition history | 1 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/8/Venue exhibition history | The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo OH |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/8/Venue Begin exhibition history | 1/1/10 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/8/Venue End exhibition history | 7/1/11 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/9/Begin Date exhibition history | 1/31/17 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/9/End Date exhibition history | 2027 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/9/Exhibition Title exhibition history | New Installation of African Art |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/9/Object Count exhibition history | 1 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/9/Venue exhibition history | Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin OH |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/9/Venue Begin exhibition history | 1/31/17 |
Exhibition History/Exhibition/9/Venue End exhibition history | 2027 |
Biography bibliography | Brass casters, like all those who made or took care of objects for the oba, belonged to hereditary guilds. When the oba desired an object, he summoned the guild chiefs, gave them their orders and raw materials, and awaited the product. The oba's sa_sfac_on with a work resulted in awards which were shared by guild members according to an internal hierarchy. Although there was certainly room for crea_vity within the guild, conformity to certain set models was expected, and appren_ceship training encouraged the con_nuity of tradi_ons. While the individual maker of the Oberlin pendant is unknown, he would have been a member of the brass caster's guild, or Igun Eronmwon.16 Working only at the oba's command, they created cire perdue heads and figures for his ancestral altars, as well as pendants, bracelets, and other ornaments for his chiefs. Before cas_ng took place, guild members purified themselves and prac_ced sexual abs_nence to achieve an ideal ritual state. They then prayed and made offerings to their ancestors, to their personal guiding spirits (ehi), and to Ogun, deity of iron and war, who is personified by tools and metal itself.17 While casters worked on smaller projects (probably including hip ornaments) in their own town quarter, more ritually significant objects were made in secrecy at the palace. In such instances, the oba himself par_cipated in the pouring of metal. |
Literature bibliography | College Art Journal 14, no. 4 (1955), cover. Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulle_n 21, no. 2 (1964), p. 113-15, no. 70. Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter. African Art in American Collec_ons, Survey 1989. Washington, D.C., 1989, pp. 222-23, no. 574. Blackmun, Barbara. "The Face of the Leopard: Its Significance in Benin Court Art." Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulle_n 44, no. 2 (1991), pp. 24- 35. |
Fund Name | Friends of Art Fund |
Technical Data | The Oberlin pendant is in excellent condi_on. While oxida_on has darkened this cire perdue work,18 only a lile corrosion is evident on the teeth. In Benin, it would have been kept polished to a high sheen with lime juice and sand. At the back, the upper flange shows a hole just to the right of the ring, and small holes are evident just below the right ear. Some of the interlace shows minor damage which may have occurred during the cas_ng process. The collar of the piece was originally hung with thirty crotals; all but two of these are missing, although eleven addi_onal aachment wires remain. |
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