21 februari 2019
Head of an Oba, Edo peoples, Nigeria, Court of Benin, ca. 1550. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Head, Guinea Coast, Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, possibly mid 16th or early 17th century. Courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Figure: Leopard, Edo peoples, Nigeria, Court of Benin, 1550–1680. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“They speak about a very sophisticated and complex court system,” said Barbara Plankensteiner, the director of the Museum am Rothenbaum in Hamburg, which participated in the BDG talks and will lend some of its 180 Benin objects as part of the agreement. “Through the study of these objects and their oral tradition, we are able to access knowledge about how the works relate to the history of the kingdom and how they developed stylistically.” The long-term stability of the kingdom—and the durability of its thousands of surviving metal artifacts—makes this abundance of information “quite rare for African art,” Plankensteiner said.