|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
The Mystique of Kings: Benin Royal Art
| Article
# : |
20311 |
|
|
Section : |
THE ARTS
|
| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1992 |
1,931 Words |
| Author
: |
Alisa LaGamma
Alisa LaGamma is a research assistant at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York. |
Among sub-Saharan African art traditions, that of the historical kingdom of Benin, now part of southwestern Nigeria, offers a unique opportunity to study culture developed over a period of more than six hundred years. Art works from this kingdom, home to the Edo people, are the subject of a comprehensive exhibition, Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through September 16.
Benin's artifacts are unparaleled for several reasons. Other notable African art traditions are the province of archaeology: The ancient cultures that produced them have long since disappeared. Many African traditions employ materials such as wood that disintegrate in the humid tropical climates in a single generation, but Benin's legacy--in cast bronze and carved ivory--has been preserved. Furthermore, Benin is unique in having had more than five centuries of interaction with European colonial powers, beginning with trade with Portugal before the discovery of America.
For four centuries, interaction with the European world enriched Benin through trade and provided it with the influence and power necessary to dominate its neighbors. Therein lay the seeds of the kingdom's destruction. As European interests shifted elsewhere, Benin's prosperity dwindled, as did its influence over its neighbors. The final glories of empire were dramatically swept away in 1897 when a controversy with colonial officials led Britain to send an expedition that laid waste to the royal city, exiled the king, and led to the confiscation of all its art treasures and their dispersal around the world. After a lapse of seven years, Eweka II, the son of the deposed ruler, was reinstated upon the throne in 1914 and resumed his role as principal patron of royal art.
The powers invested in the oba, the semidivine king of the Edo people, are spiritual as well as temporal. The extent of the oba's influence has undergone significant fluctuations over time. Ewuare, Ozoloua, and Esigie are the most exceptional obas of a dynastic line spanning from about 1300 to the present day. Their accomplishments as state builders, political strategists, administrators, and warriors were immortalized within a complex oral history and were indelibly imprinted upon the forms of a court art rivaling that of any of the world's great sculptural traditions. The dynamic vision of such formidable individuals provided impetus for the development of Benin art forms. The oba's monopoly over trade placed materials such as ivory and metals under his control, along with the guilds of artists who shaped them. Such works recorded contemporary achievements
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
