Plaque

CC0 Public Domain Designation

16th/17th century

Edo, Kingdom of Benin
Nigeria
Coastal West Africa

During the 16th century, coastal trade made brass amply available in the Kingdom of Benin. King Esigie (reigned about 1504–about 1550) exploited the inflow by commissioning his court’s brass casters to make commemorative plaques for his palace. The warrior depicted here wears a coral-studded cap and collar indicating his rank. The horseshoe shape in the upper left corner represents a copper or brass ring known as a manilla. Manufactured in Europe, such rings were used as currency among the Benin people.

Status: On View, Gallery 137
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Edo
Title: Plaque
Place: Nigeria (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1501–1700
Medium: Brass
Dimensions: 33.9 × 28.8 × 4.7 cm (13 3/8 × 11 3/8 × 1 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Samuel P. Avery Fund
Reference Number: 1933.782
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/15457/manifest.json

Helen MacKenzie, Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 28, no.2 (Feb.1934), pp. 19–20 (ill.).
Allen Wardwell, Primitive Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), pl. 47.
Melville Herskovits, The Backgrounds of African Art (New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1967), p. 24 (ill.).
Mary Hancock Buxton, Benin. Exh. cat. (Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1986), cat. 19 (ill).
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” African Arts, vol. 32, no. 4 (Winter 1999), p. 24, fig. 8.
Barbara Plankensteiner, ed. Benin Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria. Exh. cat. (Kunsthistorisches Museum mit MVK und OTM/Snoeck Publishers, 2007), pg. 241 (ill.)
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 31, pp. 92-94 (ill.).

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Benin, Sept. 21–November 17, 1968, cat. 19.
New Orleans, La., Delgado Museum, January 30, 1969.
Vienna, Museum fur Völkerkunde, Benin–Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria, May 9–Sept. 3, 2007, cat. p. 241 (ill); traveled to Paris, Musée du quai Branly, Oct. 2, 2007–Jan. 6, 2008; Ethnologisches Museum-Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Feb. 7–May 25, 2008; Art Institute of Chicago, July 10–Sept. 21, 2008.

Oba Ovonramwen (r. 1888-97, died 1914), Benin City, Kingdom of Benin, before 1897; taken during the British military raid by George W. Neville (died 1929), Weybridge, England, 1897; by descent to his heirs, 1929; sold, Foster, London, May 1, 1930, lot. 53 [according to correspondence with Jean-Louis Paudrat in curatorial object file] to Ernest Ascher (died early 1970s), Paris, to at least July 15, 1932 [Jean-Louis Paudrat correspondence mentioned above]. Paul Vamos, Paris, Nov. 25, 1932. Ladislas Szecsi (Ladislas Segy, died 1988), Paris then New York, by March 1933; sold to the Art Institute, 1933.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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