The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Plaque

Plaque

1500s–1600s

Did You Know?

Look at the side of this plaque. The designs on the slender edges are considered visual "signatures" of the different casters who made plaques for the Oba of Benin.

Description

Nearly 900 metal plaques once adorned the Ọba’s palace courtyard, documenting Benin’s history and customs. This one depicts two male attendants (enobore) supporting an Ọba. It uses hierarchical composition: important figures are large and centered. Everything about the Ọba is greater than his companions: their bodies, clothing, and jewelry. The flanking attendants physically support a man weighed down by heavy royal garments and responsibilities. Brasscasters skillfully cast their clasping hands projecting from the plaque. The bottom left number means the British Museum formerly owned this. It entered their collection in 1898, one year after British troops took it from a palace storeroom during the Siege of Benin.
  • possibly 1500s-1600s.
    Commissioned from the Igun Eronmwon
    by descent to Ọba Ovọnramwẹn (Ovọnramwẹn Nogbaisi, [c. 1857–1914; r. 1888–97], Royal Palace, Benin City
    1897
    sent to England by Sir Ralph Moor following the Siege of Benin (1897)
    to the British Museum by gift from Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
    1897-1950
    British Museum, London, until 1950 as no. 98/1-5/43
    1950-by at least 1963
    (Sydney Burney, London, as sales agent for the British Museum, 1950, sold to Kent-Bragaline, Inc.; Edward A. Bragaline, New York City, NY)
    Edward A. Bragaline, New York City, NY, sold to private collectors
    1999
    (Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York City, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    1999-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Museum of American Folk Art. Twentieth Century Masters from the Bragaline Collection for the Benefit of the Museum of Early American Folk Arts. New York: M. Knoedler, 1963 Reproduced: p. 102, fig. 48 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major Benin Bronze Plaque, Rembrandt Print, Other Works of Art Enter CMA Collection,” March 12, 1999, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: cat. 27, p. 84 - 85
    Gunsch, Kathryn Wysocki. The Benin Plaques: A 16th Century Imperial Monument. London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018. Mentioned: p. 152; reproduced: p. 162, fig. 2A
    Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. “Art from the Benin Kingdom.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 34-35. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 34.
    Digital Benin, Markk Museum Am Rothenbaum Kulturen und Kunste der Welt, (Last Updated: 2021-02-13) ID 160767 digitalbenin.org
  • {{cite web|title=Plaque|url=false|author=|year=1500s–1600s|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1999.1