AFRICAN ART
BRONZE PALACE PLATE
BINI EDO NIGERIA/BENIN
No gratuity in the execution of these historiated relief plates, real comic strips of the ancient Kingdom of Benin.
ORIGINALLY ...
The decorative plates, court objects, are as important as the heads of kings or queens specific to the court of the Kingdom of Benin City. .
Like all court art, these works of art aim to celebrate the greatness of kings and their entourage.
Lost wax casting was introduced to the Kingdom of Benin from Ife in the 16th century.
At this time, the style of Ife was in decline. Stylistically, the differences are notorious and the works of the two kingdoms show a noticeable difference in the treatment of characters, for example. The traveler Dapper was one of the first to mention the Benin bronze plaques.
They covered, according to some, the pillars of the palace, according to others, the walls.
One of the characteristics of these plates is the adoption of a "hierarchical" perspective: the size of the figures indicates their social importance.
It is estimated that the production of the plates began as early as the second half of the 16th century.
Duchateau (1990,45) does not exclude the existence of foreign influences in these works: their forms could come from the little picture books that the Portuguese brought with them.
However, do not think that Portuguese artists would have come to teach lost wax casting.
In present-day Nigeria alone, there are at least three significant centers of lost-wax casting: Ife, Benin-City and Igbo-Ukwu.
History has managed to trace the links between the first two centers. Igbo-Ukwu, whose activity dates back to the 9th century, is difficult to link to other centres. We can thus see that the debate on the relationship between production centers and that of "external influences" is far from being closed.
Source: Numidia JA
UNIQUE MODEL DATING FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE 20TH CENTURY
REF 190922 - PLATE/1205