Benin Art

Vol.5,No.2(2014)

Abstract
The subject of this study is a description, classification, analysis and interpretation of the functions and purposes of artefacts that have preserved from the period when the Benin Empire was in rise. The study presents specific artefacts on the background of long-term historic continuity of old Nigerian cultures. The analysis focuses especially on the manufacture of bronze artefacts, their typology, purpose and functions in the Benin cultural framework. It also interprets different types of artefacts – bronze plaques, memorial heads, ivory artefacts, ancestral altars, altars to the hand or ritual poles, while not neglecting jewels, practical, decorative and ritual objects carved of wood and animal sculptures. The aim of the study is to draw attention to the fact that Benin artefacts which – as a result of the 1897 British invasion to Benin − became a part of collections in many world museums changed their original function and today they are perceived as an independent class of artefacts.

Keywords:
Benin Empire; art; artefacts; bronzes; manufacture; crafts
References

Akinjogbin, I. A. − ‎Osoba, Segun (1980): Topics on Nigerian Economic and Social History. Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press.

Bacon, Reginald Hugh (1897): Benin: The City of Blood. London: Edward Arnold.

Bascom, William Russell (1969): The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Ben-Amos, Paula 1978): Owina N’Ido: Royal Weavers of Benin. African Arts, 11, s. 48–53, 95. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3335344

Ben-Amos, Girshick P. – Rubin, Arnold eds. (1983): The Art of Power: The Power of Art. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

Ben-Amos, Paula (1995): The Art of Benin. London: British Museum Press.

Ben-Amos, Paula (1999): Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Bernus, Suzanne – Gouletquer, Pierre (1976): Du cuivre au sel. Recherches etno-archéologiques sur la région d’Azelik I. Campagnes 1973−1975. Journal des africanistes, 46, č. 1−2, s. 7−68. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/jafr.1976.1773

Blackmun, Barbara Winston (1988): From Trader to Priest in Two Hundred Years: The Transformation of a Foreign Figure on Benin Ivories. Art Journal, 47, č. 2, s. 128−138. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.1988.10792405

Boisragon, Alan (1897): The Benin Massacre. London: Methuen & Co.

Bradbury, Robert Elwyn (1957): The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria. London: International African Institute.

Bradbury, Robert Elwyn (1961): Ezomo’s Ikegobo and the Benin Cult of the Hand. Man, 61, č. 8, s. 129−138.

Buchner, Max (1908): Benin und die Portugiesen. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 40, s. 981−982.

Coote, Jeremy − Edwards, Elizabeth (1997): Images of Benin at the Pitt Rivers Museum. African Arts, 30, č. 4, s. 26−35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3337551

Craddock, Paul T. (1985): Medieval Copper Alloy Production and West African Bronze Analyses, Part I. Archaeometry, 27, s. 17−41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.1985.tb00344.x

Crahmer, Wilhelm (1909): Über den indoportugiesischen Ursprung der Beninkunst. Globus, 95, č. 22−23, s. 345−349, 360−365.

Dark, Philip J. C. (1973): An Introduction to Benin Art and Technology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Dark, Philip J. C. (1975): Benin Bronze Heads: Styles and Chronology. In: McCall, Daniel F. − G. Bay, Edna (eds.): African Images: Essays in African Iconology. New York: Africana Publishing Co., s. 25−103.

Duchâteau, Armand (1994): Benin: Royal Art of Africa from the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts; Munich: Prestel.

Eardley-Wilmot, Sydney Marow (1899): Our Navy for a Thousand Years: A Concise Account of all the Principal Operations in Which the British Navy Has Been Engaged from the Time of King Alfred to the Recapture of Khartoum. London: S. Low, Marston.

Egharevba, Jacob U. (1946): The Benin Laws and Customs. Port Harcourt: CMS Press.

Egharevba, Jacob U. (1968): A Short History of Benin. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.

Ezra, Kate (1984): African Ivories. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ezra, Kate (1992): Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Eyo, Ekpo (1976): Igbo’Laja, Owo. West African Journal of Archaeology, 6, s. 37−58.

Eyo, Ekpo (1977): Two Thousand Years: Nigerian Art. Nigeria: Federal Department of Antiquities.

Eyo, Ekpo – Willett, Frank (1980): Treasures of Ancient Nigeria. New York: Knopf.

Eyo, Ekpo (1997): The Dialectics of Definitions: “Massacre” and “Sack” in the History of the Punitive Expedition. African Arts, 30, č. 3, s. 34−35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3337496

Fagg, William B. (1963): Nigerian Images: The Splendor of African Sculpture. London: Lund Humphries.

Fagg, William B. (1977): The Great Belzoni. West Africa, 3130, č. 4, s. 1330−1331.

Fagg, William B. (1990): Nok Terracottas. Lagos: National Commission for Museums and Monuments.

Fagg, William B. – Pemberton, John – Holcombe, Bryce (1982): Yoruba: Sculpture of West Africa. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Forkl, Hermann (2002): Cui bono? – Kritische Anmerkungen zu Datierungsverfahren für die Sonderausstellung Ife, Akan und Benin in Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim. Tribus, 51, s. 90−105.

Gore, Charles (2007): Art, Performance and Ritual in Benin City. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, London.

Chesi, Gert – Merzeder, Gerhard (2006): The Nok Culture: Art in Nigeria 2,500 Years Ago. Munich: Prestel.

De Grunne, Bernard (1998): The Birth of Art in Africa: Nok Statuary in Nigeria. New York: Vilo International.

Home, Robert (1982): City of Blood Revisited: A New Look at the Benin Expedition of 1897. London: Lex Collins.

Isichei, Elizabeth (1983): A History of Nigeria. London: Longman.

Kaplan, Flora S. (1997): Queens, Queen Mothers, Priestesses and Power: Case Studies in African Gender. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

Kaplan, Flora S. – Shea, Mary Anne eds. (1981): Images of Power: Art of the Royal Court of Benin. New York: Museum Studies Program, New York University.

Kriger, Colleen E. (2006): Cloth in West African History. Lanham: AltaMira Press.

Landolphe, Jean Francois (1823): Memoires du capitaine Landolpe, contenant ľhistoire de ses voyages pendant trente-six ans, aux cotes d’Afrique et aux deux Ameriques I. Paris: A. Bertrand.

Luschan, Felix von (1919): Die Altertümer von Benin I−III. Berlin, Leipzig: Vereinigung Wissenschaftlicher Verleger Walter de Gruyter.

Lynn, Martin (1998): Commerce and Economic Change in West Africa: The Palm Oil Trade in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Männel, Tanja M. – Breunig, Peter (2013): Die Terrakotten der Nok-Kultur. In: Breunig, Peter (ed.): Nok: Ein Ursprung Afrikanischer Skulptur. Frankfurt: Africa Magna Verlag, s. 196–220.

Ọmọregie, Osarẹn S. B. (1998): The Ironmakers of Great Benin: A History of Unẹmẹ People. Benin City: Neraso Publishers.

Oronsaye, Daniel Nabuleleorogie (1995): The History of the Ancient Benin Kingdom and Empire. Benin City: Jeromelaiho.

Owen, William Fitzwilliam (1833): Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar. New York: J. & J. Harper.

Platte, Editha – Hambolu, Musa (2009): Bronze Head from Ife. London: British Museum Press.

Punch, Cyril (1908): Further Note on the Relation of the Bronze Heads to the Carved Tusks, Benin City. Man, 8, s. 84.

Read, Charles H. – Dalton, Ormonde M. (1899): Antiquities from the City of Benin and from Other Parts of West Africa in the British Museum. London: British Museum, Longmans and Co.

Riederer, Josef (2006): Metallanalyse der Messingköpfe aus Benin im Ethnologischen Museum in Berlin. Baessler-Archiv N. F., 54, s. 81−94.

Roese, Peter M.– Bondarenko, Dmitri M. (2003): A Popular History of Benin: The Rise and Fall of a Mighty Forest Kingdom. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Roth, Henry Ling (1903): Great Benin: Its Customs, Art and Horrors. Halifax: F. King & Sons.

Ryder, Alan Frederick Charles (1969): Benin and the Europeans, 1485−1897. London: Longmans.

Shaw, Thurstan (1978): Nigeria: Its Archaeology and Early History. London: Thames and Hudson.

Shaw, Thurstan (1995): Further Light on Igbo-Ukwu, Including New Radiocarbon dates. In: Andah, Bassey W. – Maret, Pierre de – Soper, Robert (eds.): Proceedings of the 9th Congress of the Pan-African Association of Prehistory and Related Studies, Jos, 1983. Ibadan: Rex Charles, s. 79−83.

Spahr, Thorsten (2006): Benin um 1700: kommentierte deutsche Neu-Übersetzung eines Briefes von David van Nyendael an Willem Bosman. Mammendorf: Pro Literatur Verlag.

Struck, Bernard (1923): Chronologie der Benin-Altertümer. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 55, s. 113−166.

Vogel, Susan Mullin (1978): Art and Politics: A Staff from the Court of Benin, West Africa. Metropolitan Museum Journal, 13, s. 87−100. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1512713

Vogel, Susan Mullin (1981): For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Willett, Frank (1967): Ife in the History of West African Sculpture. London: Thames & Hudson.

Metrics

0

Crossref logo

0


582

Views

490

PDF (Czech) views