Bronze Head of Queen Idia

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Bronze Head of Queen Idia
Bronze queen head.jpg
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
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 mediaeval Benin 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. 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 eyes and two bands between them are inset with iron. 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, when Queen Idia, mother of Oba Esigie, ruled the Benin court.

The different head in Berlin

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. ^ "commemorative head | British Museum". The British Museum. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  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.
  3. ^ Picture of Lagos head Archived February 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Memorial head of a queen mother". Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Archived from the original on 2017-06-14.

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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