A Biography of Benin Art

1. A Biography of Benin Art An Ivory Armlet from the British Museum

2. Origins This ivory armlet, dated to the 15th or 16th century, was most likely created by the Benin wood and ivory carving craft guild, who were “devoted servants of the monarch” and held the “monopoly of artistic production for the king.” [1] 1. Paula Ben-Amos Girshick, “Omada Art at the Crossroads of Colonialism,” in Images and Empires: Visuality in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa, ed. Paul S. Landau and Deborah D. Kaspin (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002): 278. Benin Ivory Armlet, Edo people, elephant ivory, 4.13 in. (15th-16th century) The British Museum Online Collection.

3. Origins The armlet was owned by the Oba himself and worn during ceremonial proceedings where it was used to prevent the overabundance of coral beads from becoming tangled. [2] 2. Paula Ben-Amos Girshick, The Art of Benin (London: The British Museum Press, 1995) quoted in “The British Museum Online Collection: Benin Ivory,” http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=609015&partId=1&searchText=Benin&place=40703&from=ad&fromDate=1200&to=ad&toDate=1897&ethname=6698&page=2.

4. Origins The stylistic elements of the armlet also link it to the guild as creator, as “on decorated [Benin] objects, the majority of the figures are usually in frontal, stylistic poses in a symmetrical, often hieratic composition.” [3] This description of the carving guild’s aesthetic matches that of the armlet in which a frontally presented “Oba is represented…with mudfish legs and his hands raised to the sky.” [4] Before the Punitive Expedition of 1897 the armlet would have resided in the palace with the Oba. 3. Girshick, “Omada Art,” 282. 4. Girshick, The Art of Benin quoted in “The British Museum Online Collection: Benin Ivory,” http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=609015&partId=1&searchText=Benin&place=40703&from=ad&fromDate=1200&to=ad&toDate=1897&ethname=6698&page=2. Benin Ivory Armlet (detail), Edo people, elephant ivory, 4.13 in. (15th-16th century), The British Museum Online Collection.

5. The Punitive Expedition On February 18, 1897, the Punitive Expedition against Benin was launched by a group of Europeans. Among those involved in the raid that razed the city was Sir Ralph Moor (1860-1909), the First High Commissioner of the British Southern Nigeria Protectorate, the original collector of the armlet. [5] Between Sir Ralph Moor raiding Benin City and the armlet’s acquisition by the British Museum in 1910, it resided in the private collection of Professor Charles Gabriel Seligman (1873-1940). Seligman was an anthropologist and ethnologist who authored many books and articles dealing with African culture. [6] 5. The British Museum Online Collection: Benin Ivory,” http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=609015&partId=1&searchText=Benin&place=40703&from=ad&fromDate=1200&to=ad&toDate=1897&ethname=6698&page=2. 6. Ibid.

6. The Collectors Sir Ralph Moor Professor Charles Gabriel Seligman

7. Acquisition In 1910, the British Museum purchased the armlet from Seligman and it then joined the already expansive collection of Benin art and was categorized with various other examples of Benin ivory. The armlet was no doubt exhibited after its acquisition but the first documented display of the object was from 1970-1973, at the Museum of Mankind. This particular armlet was displayed in the “Divine Kingship of Africa” exhibition, a fitting location for the decorative ivory which not only illustrates the divinity of the Oba but was itself a precious royal object.

8. Acquisition In 1910, the British Museum purchased the armlet from Seligman and it then joined the already expansive collection of Benin art and was categorized with various other examples of Benin ivory. The armlet was no doubt exhibited after its acquisition but the first documented display of the object was from 1970-1973, at the Museum of Mankind. This particular armlet was displayed in the “Divine Kingship in Africa” exhibition, a fitting location for the decorative ivory which not only illustrates the divinity of the Oba but was itself a precious royal object.

9. Early Reception A museum visitor in the early twentieth-century would most likely have held a derogatory view of Africa and the art produced by its people. According to the British Museum’s 1908 guide to the exhibitions, the Benin bronze plaques as well as a few examples of ivory carving were located in the “Ethnographical Gallery.” [7] Described as a gallery focused on “the manners and customs of particular peoples and of their development from savagery towards civilization,” the Ethnographical Gallery of the British Museum would have presented Benin works of art as anthropological specimen rather than art and highlighted the African people’s “savage nature” for educational purposes. [8] The guide continues to link the primitiveness of Africa with the advanced Western world by stating that “the primitive races of today represent stages of culture thought which our own ancestors passed on their upward path.” [9] Obviously, the ideas of savagery and evolutionism were heavily emphasized and cited as the main reason for the display of Benin works of art. 7. The British Museum, A guide to the exhibition galleries of the British Museum (Bloomsbury) (London: The Trustees at the British Museum, 1908): 105. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid, 106.

10. Today Today the ivory armlet resides in the Benin Ivory collection of the Department of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, a department that only recently eliminated “Ethnography” from its title in 2004. [10] Since the early 1980s, African art has been the topic of many exhibitions, with an exhibition in 1993 dedicated solely to the “Great Benin: A West African Kingdom.” [11] 10. Joanna Bowring, “Chronology of Temporary Exhibitions at the British Museum,” ed. Josephine Turquet (London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 2012): 5. 11. Ibid, 83. The British Museum, Room 25, display of African ivories

11. Today As of 2010, the ivory armlet is presented in a student workbook published by the museum entitled, “The Wealth of Africa: The Kingdom of Benin.” The workbook gives a substantial overview of the city of Benin and its history with sections devoted to craftsmen, the Oba, and the wealth of the city when it was at the height of its power. [12] 12. The British Museum, “The wealth of Africa: The Kingdom of Benin Students’ worksheets,” (London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 2010): 2.

12. Today The workbook does make mention of the Punitive Expedition and also utilizes primary sources as well as scholarly articles to further explain the city of Benin. In the British Museum’s online collection, a lengthy description is included with the ivory armlet that draws upon the writings of Paula Ben-Amos Girshick.

13. Conclusion While the way in which the British Museum acquired the ivory armlet, along with the expansive collection of Benin art, is morally and legally questionable, the change in scholarship produced by the museum regarding these art objects between 1897 and 2014 is encouraging. A far-cry from the evolutionism and derogatory speech that once accompanied the “ethnographic” exhibition of Benin works, today the British Museum has taken strides to present a well-researched and respectful view of the city, its people, and its art. The ivory armlet now stands as a way in which to better understand the royal history of Benin through both its function and iconography. In the early twentieth-century, the armlet was merely one object amongst the product of an uncivilized people; however, the armlet now stands as a teaching tool and is respected for the once ceremonial function it served for the Oba of Benin. Benin Ivory Armlet , Edo people, elephant ivory, 4.13 in. (15th-16th century), The British Museum Online Collection.

14. Bibliography The British Museum, A guide to the exhibition galleries of the British Museum (Bloomsbury) (London: The Trustees at the British Museum, 1908). The British Museum Online Collection: Benin Ivory,” http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=609015&partId=1&searchText=Benin&place=40703&from=ad&fromDate=1200&to=ad&toDate=1897&ethname=6698&page=2, (accessed February 16, 2014). The British Museum, “The wealth of Africa: The Kingdom of Benin Students’ worksheets,” (London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 2010): 1-12. Bowring, Joanna. “Chronology of Temporary Exhibitions at the British Museum,” ed. Josephine Turquet (London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 2012): 1-140. Girshick, Paula Ben-Amos. “Omada Art at the Crossroads of Colonialism,” in Images and Empires: Visuality in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa, ed. Paul S. Landau and Deborah D. Kaspin (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002): 275-293. Girshick, Paula Ben-Amos. The Art of Benin (London: The British Museum Press, 1995) quoted in “The British Museum Online Collection: Benin Ivory,” http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=609015&partId=1&searchText=Benin&place=40703&from=ad&fromDate=1200&to=ad&toDate=1897&ethname=6698&page=2, (accessed February 16, 2014).