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Idia masks
At least five similar, ivory masks were taken during the 1897 Benin Expedition. This mask, from the Met, is among the museum's most celebrated works.
MaterialIvory, iron inlay
Height9 3/8 in (23.8 cm)
Width5 in (12.7 cm)
Depth3 1/4 in (8.3 cm)
CreatedEarly 16th century
Present locationMetropolitan Museum of Art, British Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Linden Museum, private collection

Origins

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Three of the ivory masks, from left to right:
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), British Museum (London), Linden Museum (Stuttgart)

In the early 16th century, the dynamic Esigie ruled the Benin Empire of the Bini people as its oba. He came to power as Portuguese explorers first made contact with the empire. Trade and diplomacy with Europe brought Esigie and the Bini prosperity and regional influence as the empire traded pepper, ivory, local textiles, and slaves for brass, cloth, coral beads, and mercenaries for protection. Esigie engaged in two major conflicts. First, his half-brother fought a protracted civil war over the line of succession that ultimately crowned Esigie, the firstborn. Second, Esigie successfully defended against an invasion from the northern Igala Kingdom and captured their leader.[1] Esigie rewarded his key political and mystical adviser during these trials, his mother Idia, with the title of iyoba (queen mother)—the first in a tradition of queen mother advisers.[2] Esigie commissioned a set of ivory masks depicting and commemorating his mother, the iyoba Idia, either during her life or soon after her death.[1][5]

The oba was the religious center of the society. The Bini believed that the people's welfare depended on the oba's spiritual health, though most of their spiritual customs were practiced in the seclusion of the oba's court rather than in public.[6] All of the empire's artworks—ivory, bronze, brass, and wooden—reflected a religious connection to the oba.[7] Europeans, foreign to this religion, described the relation between the objects and the ruler as fetishism.[8] The Benin royal guild of ivory and wood carvers, the Igbesanmwan, created custom works to address their ruler's problems.[9] In the case of the ivory masks, which were produced from giant elephant tusks,[10] both the material and visual language had metaphysical connotations.[9] At least two of the masks visually reference the Portuguese explorers, hence their dating to Esigie's rule[1] and the early period of Benin art.[11] The similarities between the two masks indicate that they were likely made at the same time[12] by the same artist.[1] Their details match those of the ivory spoons and salt cellars also carved during this period,[1] and share stylistic qualities with Yoruba carvings from the northwest.[9] Apart from these main two masks, the other ivory masks show a later style.[13] Two similar bronze masks were also produced, though while anthropologist Felix von Luschan thought that they preceded the ivory masks, British Museum anthropologist William Fagg amended that the ivory masks better resembled the Ata of Idah mask and likely preceded the bronze masks.[13]

The empire's ivory works were designated for their leader to use in ritual.[14] The masks may have been used in ceremonies including the Ugie Iyoba commemoration of the oba's mother and the Emobo purification ceremony to expel bad spirits from the land.[1][15] Similar pendant masks are used in contemporary Emobo ceremonies, though the traditions of Emobo may have changed throughout history.[15] Pendant masks are often worn in pairs.[16]

Description and interpretation

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Detail of Portuguese merchant head and mudfish

They are made of ivory, long and ovular in shape,[17] and thinly carved, approaching semiopaqueness.[9] The similar British Museum and Metropolitan masks have elaborate ornament at their hair and collar. Each mask's gaze is accentuated with iron inlay at its pupils and lower eye outline, and the eyes are slightly diverted by the eyelids.[17][18] This use of inlay departed from the ways in which Europeans used ivory.[12] The two inlaid metal bars between the eyes represent the medicine-filled incisions that gave Idia her power.[19] Above the eyes, the four supraorbital marks are associated with Benin females.[20] The masks' facial features are symmetrical and skillfully precise.[12] Their lips are parted, nostrils slightly flared, and hair dense with tiny coils and a rectilinear hairline.[1] The masks' expression of "impersonal coolness" reflected the stylistic conventions of the oba's ivory carvers guild, with a naturalism typical of craft in early Benin art.[12]

The masks are differentiated by the patterning in their hair and collar. The British Museum mask is crowned by a chain of small Portuguese merchant heads, while the Metropolitan mask alternates Portuguese merchant heads with small mudfish in a similar pattern. The Portuguese, who had only recently arrived in the area, were a symbol of power and affluence to the empire's royal court.[1] Their iconography is identifiable by their long hair, hanging mustaches, and domed hats.[9] Benin ivory art historian Barbara Blackmun interprets these crown adornments as a reference to Idia's ability to conduct the Portuguese power to her son's favor.[2] Mudfish were a common theme in Benin royal arts,[1] and reflected the divinity of the oba.[14] Bini cosmology believed that spirits crossed the ocean to reach the afterlife, where their leaders lived like gods. As creatures who could live on land and sea, the mudfish symbolized the dual skills needed for the leader's final journey.[1] The mudfish also appear in a pattern on the Linden Museum mask's crown, while the Seattle Art Museum mask's crown once had bird ornaments that are now lost.[12] The masks also differ in pattern along their bottom, collar edges. The British Museum mask has a guilloché latticework, and the Metropolitan mask repeats the Portuguese merchant motif from the crown.[1][12]

The ivory trade, as pictured in east Africa, late 19th century

Ivory, both then and now, connotes royal wealth, power, and purity.[9] Ivory, already a luxury commodity in Africa, became increasingly coveted with the growth of the European ivory trade.[21] In African societies, ivory indicated that an individual's disposition was worthy of material wealth. When an elephant was killed in the Benin Empire, the oba received one tusk as a gift and was offered the other in sale. Thus, the oba had many tusks and controlled the ivory trade.[22] The oba, the Bini sea god Olokun, and ivory shared symbolism of auspiciousness. The sea god's association with wealth and fertility made her the spirit world's equivalent of the Benin oba. Ivory attracted the Portuguese merchants—who arrived from the sea god's domain—to return wealth to Benin.[23] Olokun, the sea god, was also associated with ritual purity, symbolized in white chalk and the whiteness of ivory.[22]

Four rungs on the side of the masks, above and below each ear, let the masks hang in suspension[1] and indicate that the masks were suspended from a cord,[12] though experts have disagreed on how they were worn.[1][12] British Museum art historian William Fagg concluded that unlike the small brass pendant masks worn at the waist by modern kings, the ivory mask was likely worn around the neck. An 1830s drawing of a similar mask worn at the breast by a neighboring ruler confirms Fagg's theory.[12] Based on the position of the rungs, Metropolitan curator Alisa LaGamma also affirmed the theory.[1] Benin specialist and anthropologist Paula Ben-Amos, however, wrote that the masks were worn on the waist as pendants during the Ugie Iyoba and Emobo ceremonies.[1] The hollow masks likely served as amuletic containers.[1]

Provenance

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Harry Rawson (left) led the British 1897 Benin Expedition to kill Ovonramwen, Oba of Benin, and destroy the kingdom's towns and villages. The ivory pendant masks were looted from the oba's bedroom.

During the 1897 punitive Benin Expedition, the British found a group of similar ivory masks in the oba's palace bedroom,[11] likely from the same oaken chest.[13] The expedition's civil leader Ralph Moor took the two finest masks,[11][24] which British anthropologist Charles Gabriel Seligman purchased in 1909[25][26] and later transferred to the London Museum of Mankind (now the British Museum) and the New York Museum of Primitive Art (now the Metropolitan Museum of Art).[11] Two additional masks from the bedchamber group were taken by British officers and now reside in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum and the Linden Museum in Stuttgart.[11] A fifth mask resides in a private collection of British officer Henry Galway's descendants, though the mask might have come from a 1892 gift rather than the 1897 expedition.[27] Some have estimated more than five similar masks to exist.[13]

Rockefeller founded the New York Museum for Primitive Art. Its director claimed that the mask would become as recognizable as Rousseau's Sleeping Gypsy.

The two finest masks in the collection, previously held by the anthropologist Seligman, now reside in London and New York.[28] Seligman acquired multiple Benin items from the Moor estate in 1909 and transferred all but one item to the British Museum.[13] The London British Museum mask sits in its King Edward VII Gallery.[29] The item he kept—the mask's pair—became known as the "Seligman mask"[16] and would later come to New York. Seligman died in 1940 and his wife sold the mask in February 1958 to raise funds for the London Royal Anthropological Institute endowment in memory of her husband,[4][16] contingent on the society matching the funds.[29] The mask sold at a record price paid for a tribal artwork,[10] twice the previous record,[4] to Nelson Rockefeller and his New York Museum of Primitive Art.[30]

Rockefeller founded the Museum of Primitive Art in 1954 after the Metropolitan Museum did not reciprocate his interest in Precolumbian art. His museum collected works for their artistic—and not anthropological—value.[31] The Queens College art historian Robert Goldwater became its director and recommended acquisitions.[32] His argument to collect the ivory pendant mask was among his longest, at the end of 1957. He called it "the best object of its kind known, nor will any others ever turn up". Goldwater wrote that the mask was higher in quality than the similar, renowned one owned by the British Museum. The mask, he predicted, would redefine the collection and go on permanent display, on par with the Museum of Modern Art's well-known Sleeping Gypsy (1897) by Henri Rousseau.[33] The New York Museum of Primitive Art unveiled its mask in September 1958. The purchase solidified Goldwater's policy that the museum should center around permanent collections of masterworks.[33] Before this mask left for New York, it was shown with its twin London mask at the British Museum in for a week in March 1958.[16][29] Though the masks were undamaged when they were taken from the Benin Kingdom, by the time of the New York purchase, the mask had become damaged on one side of its collar.[16]

There are no records of formal requests for the masks' repatriation by Benin leaders, though Oba Akenzua II received restitution of other coral items in 1937.[27]

Legacy

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The masks are the most famous masterpieces from the Benin Empire,[34][35] and as such, are iconic of the looting of Benin and the campaign for restitution.[36] The New York mask is among its museum's most celebrated works.[37]

The Festac 77 cultural jamboree united African nations under the Idia mask emblem in events including a Durbar procession (pictured).

The London mask is a national emblem of Nigeria, where it is known as the Festac mask.[38] It was chosen as the symbol for Festac 77, the 1977 Second World Festival of Black Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria. The country requested to loan the item but could not meet the British Museum's conservational and insurance stipulations.[27] This began a prominent discussion on the postcolonial ownership of African artworks,[39] and made the Festac mask iconic of both "the colonial plunder of Africa"[27] and the case for restitution of Benin art.[40] The cultural offshoots of the affair include a 1979 Nigerian film, The Mask, in which the director, Eddie Ugbomah, plays a secret agent character who is sent by the Nigerian president to repossess the mask from the British Museum.[41] Despite the film's low quality, the director said that the production led to his invitation to appear in the BBC's Whose Treasure, Ours or Theirs?[42]

Historian Russell Chamberlin wrote that the Nigerians' choice of the Idia mask—the most valuable and vulnerable artifact from the Benin Empire—was likely designed to provoke this outcry.[43] Between its sovereignty in 1963 and Festac in 1977, Nigeria led the African campaign for restitution in recognition of the artifacts' role in establishing a national cultural identity. Nigeria primarily pursued public museum officials with decorous negotiations during this time, since the legal means to recover objects purchased in good faith for private collections were sparse.[44] When Nigeria requested a loan of the mask for Festac 77, the British Museum demurred first with a proviso for £2 million in insurance bonds (equivalent to £16 million in 2023), and second with the argument that the mask was too fragile to be moved from its controlled housing. Nigerians considered both counts disingenuous, and were insulted by the insinuation that they could not protect a mask they had preserved for more than 350 years prior to its looting. Several years later, a director from the museum reaffirmed that the Nigeria's temperature and humidity were inhospitable for ivory works.[45]

The British Museum's director responded to the case for restitution in 1989 by defending the museum's role as "holding material in trust for mankind", fortified against the influence of politics, emotions, sentiments, and "narrow nationalism".[40] British art historian Annie Coombes challenged this position by noting how the museum supports and serves the United Kingdom's national interests.[40] When the last privately held Idia mask from the set went up for auction in 2010, public outcry led its owners to withdraw the item. While items from colonial Benin are often sold at auction, the symbolic value related to the Festac mask likely spurred the public response. Nigeria had known about the auction in advance and had neither made contact with the descendants or formal claims to the mask. The Festac mask story exemplifies the role of public morals in the ethics of colonial artwork restitution and repatriation.[27]

There can be very little doubt that the Seligman mask is the finest and most valuable Benin—or indeed West African—antiquity still in private hands in the world.

The British Museum's William Fagg, 1957, prior to the Seligman mask's sale to the New York Metropolitan[13]

The New York Met considers its Queen Mother pendant mask among its most celebrated works.[37] It is the centerpiece of its gallery.[46] Prior to its acquisition by the Met, the British Museum's William Fagg called it the "finest and most valuable" Benin and West African antiquity in a private collection, surpassed in importance only by the bronze heads of Ife.[13] The New York Times compared the New York mask's eminence with that of the Cloisters Cross.[46] African art historian Ezio Bassani wrote that the profile of New York mask was "at once delicate and strong" with a "musical rhythm", and that its use of iron and copper inlay was both "discreet and functional".[12] The New York and London masks, he posited, were among the most beautiful ivories carved in Benin, and their artist was both refined and sensitive.[12] Of the New York mask, art historian Kate Ezra wrote that its thinness showcased the "sensitivity and solemnity" of early Benin art.[9] The New York Times described the mask's countenance as proud, pensive, and solemn.[46]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q LaGamma 2011, p. 28.
  2. ^ a b LaGamma 2011, p. 29.
  3. ^ LaGamma 2011, p. 26.
  4. ^ a b c West Africa 1958a.
  5. ^ The mid-20th century Oba Akenzua II identified the masks as depicting Esigie's mother Idia[3] and dated them to Esigie's rule.[1] Others thought the mask could have been commissioned for the first Christian oba, Orhogbua, from the same time period.[4]
  6. ^ Fagg 1970, p. 29; Chamberlin 1983, pp. 197–198.
  7. ^ Chamberlin 1983, pp. 197–198.
  8. ^ Chamberlin 1983, p. 196.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Ezra 1984, p. 21.
  10. ^ a b c James 1959.
  11. ^ a b c d e Bassani 1991, p. 182.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bassani 1991, p. 183.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Fagg 1957.
  14. ^ a b Ezra 1984, p. 18.
  15. ^ a b Ezra 1984, pp. 20–21.
  16. ^ a b c d e West Africa 1958b.
  17. ^ a b LaGamma 2011, pp. 26–28.
  18. ^ The Met's mask uses iron inlay in the pupils and forehead markings, and copper inlay for the eyelid outline.[12]
  19. ^ Davis 2016.
  20. ^ Ben-Amos 1980, p. 81.
  21. ^ Ezra 1984, p. 14.
  22. ^ a b Ezra 1984, p. 16.
  23. ^ Ezra 1984, pp. 16, 18.
  24. ^ Though Moor's collection was smaller than that of fellow offers Rawson and Egerton, the British Museum's William Fagg contended that Moor's collection was greater in artistic merit.[13]
  25. ^ Fagg 1957; The Illustrated London News 1958.
  26. ^ Seligman purchased the pair of masks and other armlets from a member of Moor's family.[13]
  27. ^ a b c d e Plankensteiner 2016, p. 139.
  28. ^ See previous paragraph.
  29. ^ a b c The Illustrated London News 1958.
  30. ^ At US$56,000 (equivalent to $585,315 in 2023), the Rockefeller purchase was the highest price paid for a tribal artwork at the time.[10]
  31. ^ LaGamma 2014, pp. 4–6.
  32. ^ LaGamma 2014, pp. 5–7.
  33. ^ a b LaGamma 2014, p. 7.
  34. ^ Roese, Peter M.; Bondarenko, D. M. (2003). A Popular History of Benin: The Rise and Fall of a Mighty Forest Kingdom. Peter Lang. p. 340. ISBN 978-3-631-50472-7.
  35. ^ Kaplan 2008.
  36. ^ Plankensteiner 2016, p. 139; Coombes 1997, p. 223.
  37. ^ a b LaGamma 2014, p. 7; Davis 2016.
  38. ^ Nnolim, Charles E. (2016). "Literature, the Arts, and Cultural Development". Literature, Literary Criticism and National Development. Malthouse Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-978-53250-8-9.
  39. ^ Kravagna 2014, p. 198.
  40. ^ a b c Coombes 1997, p. 223.
  41. ^ Kravagna 2014, p. 198; Chamberlin 1983, pp. 191–192.
  42. ^ Kravagna 2014, pp. 198–199; Ukadike 1994, pp. 163–164.
  43. ^ Chamberlin 1983, p. 204. "It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that the choice of this unique object was a more or less deliberate attempt to put a cat among the pigeons, for of all the Benin treasures in public ownership in Great Britain this is at once the most valuable and the most vulnerable."
  44. ^ Chamberlin 1983, p. 203.
  45. ^ Chamberlin 1983, p. 204.
  46. ^ a b c Smith 2004.

References

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  • Akeh-Osu, Chris Afumata (1992). "The Royal Effigy in Issele-Uku 'Isi–Eze' and the FESTAC Mask "Queen Idia Mask" – 1977". The History of Great Issele-Uku Kingdom. Onitsha, Nigeria: Etukokwu. pp. 139–141. OCLC 40274386. – waiting on ILL
  • James, Milton M. (April 1959). "Ivory Mask from Benin". Negro History Bulletin. 22 (7): 166. ISSN 0028-2529.
  • Plankensteiner, Barbara (2016). "The Benin Treasures: Difficult Legacy and Contested Heritage". In Hauser-Schäublin, Brigitta; Prott, Lyndel V. (eds.). Cultural Property and Contested Ownership: The Trafficking of Artefacts and the Quest for Restitution. London: Routledge. pp. 133–155. ISBN 978-1-138-18883-9. OCLC 962372539.
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