Bronze Head of Queen Idia

Bronze Head of Queen Idia
The head, on display at the British Museum.
Material"Bronze", actually Brass and Iron.
Sizeheight:41cm
width:15.5cm
depth:17.5cm
Weight3.9kg
CreatedSixteenth century AD
DiscoveredBenin City
Present locationBritish Museum
RegistrationAf1897,1011.1
CultureBenin Court Art
Description applies to only one of four, similar, works believed to depict the same individual.

The Bronze Head of Queen Idia is a commemorative bronze head from the medieval Kingdom of Benin in West Africa that probably represents Idia, mother of Oba Esigie, made during the early sixteenth century at the Benin court. Many Benin works of art entered the European art market after the Benin Expedition of 1897 – Four cast bronze heads of the queen are known and are currently in the collections of the British Museum in London,[1] the World Museum in Liverpool,[2] the Nigerian National Museum in Lagos,[3] and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.[4]

Description

The bronze head was made using the lost wax casting technique in the early sixteenth century.[1] It is a very realistic representation of a young woman from the Benin court, who wears a high pointed ukpe-okhue crown of lattice-shaped red coral beads. The hairstyle is referred to as a "parrot's beak" hairstyle and was only allowed to be worn by the Iyoba and the major war chief.[5]

The eyes and two bands between them are inset with iron. These reflect the oral tale of how Idia came to be the Iyoba; the tale states that an oracle had told Idia to place medicine on two incisions above her eyes in order to prevent the Oba Ozolua from picking her for his wife. Oba Ozolua then went on to defeat the oracle's premonitions and Idia became the mother of Oba Esigie.[5] Above each eyebrow are engraved four cicatrices. The sophisticated technique and design of the four heads suggest that they were made in the early sixteenth century, commissioned by Idia's son Oba Esigie, and created by the imperial guild of brass-casters that was founded by the previous Oba, Oba Ogolua.[6] The heads were designed to honour her military achievements and ceremonial power.[7]

Close frontal view of a reddish-brown metal head with almond-shaped eyes, two narrow vertical forehead inlays, a tall forward-curving lattice crown and a tightly ridged collar; most of the decorated pedestal is cropped out.
Early-16th-century cast copper-alloy commemorative head of an Iyoba ('queen mother'), with iron and glass inlays, made by Edo court artists in the Kingdom of Benin. Its date and iconography suggest that it may represent Idia, the first iyoba; Benin oral tradition interprets the fish reliefs on its base as an allusion the part she took in driving an invading Igala army back across the Niger River. Formerly part of Berlin's collection, the head has been owned by Nigeria since 2022 and remains on loan to the Ethnologisches Museum.
Full frontal view of the copper-coloured head inside a glass display case, showing its tall lattice crown, ringed neck and broken base with a fish relief; European sculptures and a painted altarpiece are visible in the gallery behind it.
Early-16th-century commemorative head of an Iyoba, possibly representing Idia, displayed at the Bode Museum during Beyond Compare: Art from Africa in the Bode-Museum (2017–2019). The exhibition juxtaposed African works from the Ethnologisches Museum with European sculpture; this full view shows the head's latticework crown, beaded collar and fish reliefs on its damaged base.

Original use

Queen Idia played an instrumental role in her son's successful military campaigns against neighbouring tribes and factions. After her death, Oba Esigie ordered dedicatory heads of the queen to be made, to be placed in front of altars or in the Queen Mother's palace. The heads were designed to honour her military achievements and ceremonial power.

The British Museum head was presented to the museum by Sir William Ingram in 1897.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "commemorative head | British Museum". The British Museum. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  2. ↑ Accession number 27.11.99.8. Kingdon, Zachary (2019). Ethnographic collecting and African agency in early colonial West Africa : a study of trans-imperial cultural flows. New York. p. 132. ISBN 978-1-5013-3793-2. OCLC 1062395773.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ↑ Picture of Lagos head Archived 2 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ "Memorial head of a queen mother". Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Archived from the original on 14 June 2017.
  5. 1 2 Africa, arts and cultures. John Mack, British Museum. New York. 2000. ISBN 0-19-521727-6. OCLC 48015137.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. ↑ Africa, arts and cultures. John Mack, British Museum. New York. 2000. ISBN 0-19-521727-6. OCLC 48015137.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ↑ Africa, arts and cultures. John Mack, British Museum. New York. 2000. ISBN 0-19-521727-6. OCLC 48015137.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)

Further reading

  • Mack, John (ed.) Africa, Arts and Cultures. London, 2005.
  • Barley, Nigel. The Art of Benin. London: The British Museum Press, 2010.
  • Ben-Amos, P. Girshick. The Art of Benin. London: The British Museum Press, 1995.
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