The indigenous and the foreign in Benin Art ca. 1500-1900CE. (Patreon)

The kingdom of Benin is a fascinating and curious case in the study of African contacts with Europeans.

It was the first African state in the Atlantic world to send an embassy to Europe in 1486 when its envoys arrived in Portugal and initiated a period of intense contact and trade between the two societies that was brought to a sudden halt in the early 16th century when it cut ties with the Portuguese, who were later replaced by the Dutch and English but with minimal contact.

Despite the brief period of intense contact, the artists of Benin observed the newcomers and their accouterments with great accuracy and were able to depict them in their artworks for many centuries after.

While most surviving African artworks of this period contact (such as the Sapi ivories of Sierra Leone) were primarily made for foreign buyers, Benin's artworks were made for its own consumption. And despite the common view that the image of the Europeans became a static decorative motif in Benin, the artists of the 19th century produced more accurate depictions of contemporary Europeans whom they encountered, and the context in which these encounters occurred.

This article explores the contact of the 'indigenous' with the 'foreign' in Benin art through its artists' depiction of European objects and people from the 16th to the 19th century.

European heads decorating various objects from Benin city dated to between the 16th and 19th century.

A brief background on the history of Benin.

Portuguese navigators first reached the coast of what is now Nigeria between 1469 and 1475, but it was not until 1486 that Joao Afonso d’Aveiro was sent by King John II of Portugal to make contact with the king of Benin, who was at the time Oba Ewuare. During the reigns of Ewuare's successor Oba Ozolua (1480s-1517) and Esigie (1517-1550s), more Portuguese visitors arrived at the court. These were primarily interested in trade and religious propagation, but some were hired as mercenaries during Esigie's war with the kingdom of Idah. However, the relationship between Benin and the Portuguese later soured, their priests were expelled, and the export of slaves was banned by the second decade of the 16th century.

(The Art of Benin pg 9-13, 32-33)

King Esigie and his successors in the 16th century presided over the kingdom at its height, commissioning a large body of artwork that demonstrated their power and affirmed their legitimacy as members of Ewuare's dynasty. These artworks also feature images of the Portuguese as many of the symbols of the Oba's power and wealth. After the civil conflicts of the late 17th century, Benin's fortunes were restored in the 18th century by the kings; Akenzua I (r. ca. 1715- 1735) and Eresonyen (r. ca. 1735- 1750) in part due to the increase in ivory trade. More artworks were commissioned by these later kings, as they developed the ceremonial and ritual aspects of kingship.

(Royal Art of Benin pg 14-15, The Art of Benin pg 34-36, 45-57)

Map of Benin in the 16th century.

The Art of Benin and the Palace of the Oba.

The vast corpus of Benin's sculptural art includes depictions of the Edo of various status, as well as foreigners such as the people of Idah, and the Europeans.

Virtually all of these artworks were made in the Oba's palace for the king himself. This palace was a vast sprawling agglomeration of buildings and courtyards occupied by various royals, titleholders and their followers. The 17th century Dutch descriptions attest to its splendor, noting that it was as "large as Haarlem", with "beautiful and long square galleries" and pillars "on which are engraved pictures of their war exploits and battles". Another Dutch visitor to the Oba's palace also notes that "In another gallery, one sees behind a white carpet eleven human heads cast in copper; upon each of these is an elephant's tooth, these being some of the King's gods."

(The Art of Benin pg 41-42)

The Oba is the most important patron of the arts in Benin and had a virtual monopoly on the work of many of the artists’ guilds. These guilds are incorporated into the court organization as part of Iwebo, the palace association responsible for the king’s regalia and wardrobe. The guilds, which have workshops in the Palace complex, include a diverse range of specialists eg; blacksmiths, brasscasters (Igun Eronmwon), ivory and wood carvers (Igbesanmwan), bead and costume makers (Enisen), and leather workers. The structure of the guilds evolved over the centuries, membership was often hereditary, and the skills were passed on by apprenticeship.

(The Art of Benin pg 14-18, Royal Art of Benin pg 22-24)

Benin art is therefore a royal art. It consciously invokes the past using a variety of motifs in a range of different contexts, creating layers of meaning that reinforce each other. The multiple functions and interpretations of Benin artworks and motifs can all be seen as allusions to the origin of the Benin dynasty that began with Ewuare, as well as references to Esigie, the greatest of the warrior kings. Such references to the past are a means by which later Obas reaffirm their ancestral legacy, confirm the legitimacy of their rule, and glorify their own reigns.

(Royal Art of Benin pg 68)

The image of the European in Benin ornamentation: pendants, altar figures, Bells and bracelets.

The image of the European (often the Portuguese), is common in Benin art, appearing on palace plaques, pectorals and hip ornaments, altar tableux, brass bells, kola nut boxes, royal stools and coconut shell vessels.

The Portuguese are typically depicted with distinct features, including; long hair, beards and moustaches, beak noses, and 16th-century dress, and would continue to feature in Benin artworks long after the Portuguese had been supplanted by other Europeans. Virtually all images of the Portuguese are associated with Oba Esigie, who was aided by Portuguese mercenaries in his battle against the ruler of Idah.

In Benin, images of the Portuguese appear most frequently on the 16th century Brass plaques, which were the focus of my previous articles on Benin Art here, and here

Portuguese figure holding a crossbow and a bird, Portuguese figure holding a dreizack three-pronged spear, Portuguese figure holding a manilla copper currency ring (numbers: III C 8352, III C 8358, III C 8360 at the Ethnologisches Museum berlin)

However, these plaques were created within a relatively short period and do not fully capture the entirety of Benin's depiction of Europeans and the evolving use of foreign motifs and objects in Benin's sculptural art. A diverse range of foreign images and objects can be found on the different art forms of Benin, especially those associated with palace ceremonies and the kingdom's external contacts.

Hip ornaments made of brass and ivory were some of the items worn by the Oba and other notables as part of their elaborate costumes for palace ceremonies. as early as the mid 16th century, one of the Benin plaques shows the Oba wearing three waist pendants in the form of Portuguese faces, while the Oba’s enobore (supporters) each wear three waist pendants in the form of crocodile heads.

(Royal art of Benin pg 153, 156)

Benin plaque depicting the Oba and his attendants. The king wears a tunic and elaborately decorated skirt with a series of pendant masks depicting European (Portuguese heads). 

Af1898,0115.27, British Museum

Relatively few pendants with Portuguese heads and figures exist, suggesting that the objects were likely worn by the Oba himself, and reflected his control of relations between the Benin kingdom and European traders. While some scholars suggest an 18th century date for these ornaments, the depiction of similar hip ornaments on the much older brass plaques, suggests that the same type of ornament was repeated over the centuries.

(Royal art of Benin pg 155, 157, 161)

Pendant plaques of Portuguese horsemen, 16th-18th century. No. 1991.17.39, Met Museum, No. 212111, SMB, No. 210369 Field Museum.

The first of these pendants depict a Portuguese soldier on horseback, with his chest, head, and hands extending above the upper edge of the semicircular plaque, which is decorated with incised leopard spots against a stippled ground. The soldier wears a helmet, tuniclike armor secured with a belt around the chest, and breeches ending at the knees. A sword is fastened at his waist; he holds a halberd in his right hand and the reins in his left. The details of the costume and the patterns of the garments and background have all been incised with great delicacy.

(Royal Art of Benin pg 161)

The dress and accouterments of the Portuguese figure above, as well as his lack of a beard, are very much like those of Benin figures of Portuguese standing musketeers and at least one of a seated Portuguese figure. Like most stand-alone figures of Benin sculpture, these musketeers were likely part of a larger figural group on an altar tableau, which had separately cast elements placed on top. There are several sculptures of Benin court officials and priests rendered in similar proportions and some carrying muskets, which indicate that these Portuguese musketeers weren't isolated figures.

The Portuguese musketeers are generally displayed in active poses and in profile, in contradistinction to the static and characteristically immobile renderings of Benin court figures. And with a single exception of a seated Portuguese figure, most are shown standing.

(African portrayals of the Portuguese pg 384, Royal Art of Benin pg 68-72)

Benin figures representing Portuguese musketeers, 16th-18th century, No. K.2003.892 National museums Scotland, No. Af1944,04.7 British Museum, No. Af1949,46.158 British museum

Seated Portuguese figure, 18th century, No. 1991.17.31, Met museum.

In the figure above, the Portuguese wears a patterned, high-crowned hat with a knotted rope decorating its brim, knee breeches, a buttoned doublet with flaring shoulders, a ruffled collar, and patterned sleeves. His garments and hairstyle are all typical of men’s dress in Spain and Portugal in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the precision with which details of the costume are rendered suggests that the figure may have been made during or close to the period in which such dress was worn.

(Royal Art of Benin pg 69)

Besides the hip ornaments, wrist bracelets made of ivory and brass, as well as Brass bells were some of the many ornaments worn by the Oba and other titleholders in Benin during palace festivals. These often feature alternating Portuguese heads and mudfish, similar to the famous hip ornament of Queen Idia. They constitute the multilayered royal symbols alluding to the Oba’s identification with Olokun, the god of the sea, and to his wealth and power. The Portuguese in this way are depicted as semiotic equivalents of the mudfish, the piscatorial avatar of the sea god Olokun.

(Royal art of Benin pg 177, African and portrayals of the Portuguese pg 385 )

Bracelets decorated with Portuguese faces, 17th-18th century, No. 1991.17.79 met museum, No. 1991.13.15 Pitt Rivers Museum, No. 1991.13.26 Pitt Rivers Museum, No. 3481a Horniman Museum

Bracelet: Four Figures Edo peoples, 1888–97, Met Museum

The above bracelets at the Met Museum each depict four figures surrounded by leafy branches.

Two of the figures are Portuguese soldiers in profile mounted on horseback, with reclining leopards above their heads. Their style is distinguished by the rabbitlike profile of the Portuguese soldiers’ laces and their large slanted, almond-shaped eyes. Portuguese figures carved in this style appear frequently on a group of altar tusks commissioned by Oba Osemwende (r. 1815—50), suggesting that the bracelets were made during his reign or that of one of his successors

(Royal Art of Benin pg 175-176)

Altar bells with Portuguese faces, 16th-17th century, No. 1991.17.85 Met museum, No. Af1905,1201.3 British Museum, No. Af1947,18.52 British Museum, No. 210314 Field Museum.

Indegenous objects with Foreign motifs, and Foreign objects with indigenous motifs: Ivory boxes, wooden stools, and Brass aquamanile.

Benin court etiquette called for elaborate containers for holding liquids like water used in ceremonies and solid items like kola nuts. Among the variety of brass vessels used in Benin's palace ceremonies were aquamaniles, buckets, bowls and boxes, many of which were indigenous in origin, but some of which were influenced by European contact and feature European figures.

Boxes made for carrying Kola nuts were evidently local in origin, and the Kola nuts are a symbol of civilization, sociability, and rank in Benin. However, many of these also feature a diverse range of decorations including Portuguese heads and figures. Aside from the rectangular boxes, other luxury items use at the court of Benin such as drinking vessels also include depictions of Portuguese heads.

16th-19th century, Met Museum, Lidded Box with Portuguese Face, Box with Portuguese Horseman, Vessel with Portuguese face.

The first of the above objects is a small oval box of cast brass decorated with the head of a Portuguese, suggesting that it was intended for royal use, perhaps as a container for the king’s personal belongings. The second depicts a Portuguese soldier mounted on horseback, surrounded by leafy boughs, a leopard resting on a tree branch, and a bird eating a snake. While the third is carved in relief with two registers, each with two alternating motifs. On the top row Portuguese heads, identifiable by their dome-shaped hats, long hair, and beards, alternate with leopards seen in profile. The vessel's base and decoration are closely related to local Benin and Owo objects.

(Royal art of Benin pg 230-231, 245, 246)

Traditions associated with some first aquamaniles note that they were obtained from the underwater palace of Olokun (god of the sea) by Ewuare, likely indicating that they were salvaged from a European shipwreck. Similarly, but to a lesser extent, some of the brass buckets featured a truncated shape likely based on a European prototype of the "copper buckets" imported by the Dutch in the 17th century.

(Royal Art of Benin pg 225-226, Benin and the Europeans pg 98)

Yet despite their European origin, the brass aquamaniles and buckets quickly acquired a uniquely African character of Benin. Like most of Benin's royal artwork, many of the aquamaniles and buckets depicted leopards, since this ferocious animal was one of the most principal symbols of the Oba. The Benin leopards' facial features and body proportions were rendered in a design common in Benin artworks, and are often richly ornamented with delicately incised floral and foliage patterns.

(Royal art of Benin pg 228-229)

Brass Leopard Aquamanile with detachable head, 16th-19th century, Met Museum, Lidded Vessel: Leopard and Prey, 16-19th century, Met Museum, Brass Ewer, 16th-19th century, Nigeria National Museum, Stopper of a container in the form of a European janus-head, 18th century, British Museum

Foreign people on Foreign objects: the Bini-Portuguese salt cellars, spoons, and trumpets.

The ivory carvers of Benin did not work exclusively for the Oba. Powerful chiefs occasionally commissioned ivory bracelets and boxes, and for a brief period, during the 16th century, members of Igbesanmwan also produced works in ivory for European visitors. Known as Bini-Portuguese, these include ivory saltcellars, trumpets, and spoons.

The earliest written reference to ivory carving in the coastal regions of Benin concerns the Bini-Portuguese spoons. The English trader James Welsh who reached Benin in 1589, mentioned "spoones of Elephants teeth very curiously wrought with divers proportions of foules and beasts made upon them". Another Dutch account from 1651 notes the presence of ivory ornaments worn by women and "ivory flutes" played by court attendants.

(Benin and the Europeans pg 84, 314)

Virtually all the salt-cellars of Benin depict European figures. The details of Portuguese dress on these items are achieved with such specificity that they can be used to date associated works.

16th century salt-cellar, No. Af1878,1101.48.a-c British Museum, No. Af1856,0623.162.a-c British Museum,  No. Af1879,0701.1 British Museum, No. 210642 SMB.

"The faces of the foreigners are shown with long flowing hair and mustaches, thin, deeply set oval eyes, and prognathous jaws. The careful attention to physiognomy and costume and the accuracy of such detail, reflect not only the importance placed on relative naturalism in the Benin court and the concomitant skill of royal artists, but also both the sustained period of residence of the Portuguese in the Benin capital during this period and the general availability of the foreigners as models for arts at court."

(African portrayals of the Portuguese pg 384)

On the other hand, most of the Bini-Portuguese spoons depict fish or animals, often separated by short sections of the stem, but some of them include depictions of European figures.

16th century carved ivory spoons, No. 1991.17.143 Met museum, No. Af.9184 British Museum.

"The delicacy and skill of carving seen on these spoons, the love of textured surfaces, and the lively interest in the creatures of the natural world is typical of Igbesanmwan, whether in works intended for the Oba or the foreign visitors to his court"

The first spoon has an ovoid bowl carved so thin as to be virtually translucent, with a narrow, raised rib down the center of the convex side. Typical of Bini-Portuguese spoons is the flared overhang that curls over the bowl where it joins the stem. On the stem an open-mouthed crocodile head and a fish, both decorated with incised cross-hatching, face each other on either side of a tapering element

(Royal Art of Benin pg 247-248)

The second spoon shows a bare-footed Portuguese figure with long straight hair, he wears brimmed hat, pleated knee-length tunic and breeches and is holding the ring handle of a sword in both hands.

(Africa and the Renaissance pg 246)

16th century Benin Oliphant with Portuguese motifs, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum

"Because of the explicit way in which Portuguese and Bini motits are combined, these oliphants deserve—more than any other group of works— to be called “Bini-Portuguese.”” Among the traditional motifs the most obvious are the basket weave, lozenge, and guilloche patterns interspersed across the surface.!'” But the most important Bini motif for the definitive attribution of the ivories is the step pattern, a border design consisting of a single line of steps, that frames an armillary sphere on two of the three oliphants; since this pattern appears nowhere in Africa but Benin, it is a characteristic pointer to Benin workmanship. These motifs, combined with the traditional placement of the mouthpiece on the convex side of the tusk and the horror vacui typical of Bini art, confirm our belief that these horns were carved by artists trained in the igbesamwan guild at Benin."

(Africa and the Renaissance pg 156)

The image of the European in Benin art from the 19th century

Beginning in the 19th century, different versions of European figures begin appear in Benin's wooden carvings like boxes, stools and vessels. Although many of the items produced during this period followed the artistic conventions of Benin, including the archaic depiction of Portuguese faces on the Oba's waist wrapper, others departed from these conventions by showing a more contemporary depiction of a 19th century European trader.

(The Art of Benin pg 56-58)

Art historians have attributed these dynamic works to a different guild known as the Omada, who, unlike the old Igbesanmwan guild, were a non-hereditary guild founded in the 19th century, whose members were free to sell their products to anyone inorder to purchase a title. Their artwork features new motifs, active scenes, free compositions, and scenes taken from the contemporary world including foreign objects and people like the Europeans who had resumed trading with Benin.

(Royal Art of Benin pg 253-254)

The image of the European in a boat, wearing 19th-century dress, and accompanied by barrels of palm oil or firearms was used frequently on objects carved by Omada. It appears on chairs and stools and on carved wooden panels, and its free composition can be compared with similar depictions of Edo people, such as those made on coconut shells

Benin stools from the 19th century with images of a European figure in a boat, British Museum, Fowler Museum, British Museum

Chair with carvings of the Oba, his attendants, and a European figure in a boat, 19th century, Met museum,

"During the 19th century, imported European household items were brought to Nigeria in ever-increasing numbers, and many European visitors commented upon the quantity and variety of European-made goods that could be found in chiefs’ homes. Although its form is European, the decoration of the chair is rooted in the rich and varied bank of images used by Omada carvers. The most prominent figure is the Oba, who is flanked by a leopard who has decapitated an animal, and a warrior mounted on horseback. In the space below, blissfully oblivious to the awesome presence of the Oba above him, a European man reclines in a boat, his legs are casually crossed and he grasps a paddle in one hand and a chain connected to a barrel in the other. A cannon is placed behind him, perhaps explaining his apparent nonchalance"

(Royal Art of Benin pg 266)

19th century, Met Museum, Box with the depiction of a European in a boat, Coconut Shell Vessel.

The first box portrays a European man standing in a boat, dressed in late 19th-century attire—a long-sleeved jacket, high, standup collar, and top hat. He holds an umbrella and a sword, and in the boat with him are two objects, possibly kegs or cannons.

(Royal Art of Benin pg 256)

The second and third images are of a coconut shell depicting an Edo man holding a knife in one hand and an ax or a hoe over his shoulder. on the obverse side is a European man shown wearing shorts and brandishing a spear and a paddle. A barrel floats in the space beside him, perhaps containing the palm oil that became the principal trade interest of the British in Nigeria in the 19th century

(Royal Art of Benin pg 256)

Conclusion: Benin's image of Europeans as a visual document of evolving contacts between Africa and Europe

The above outline on the representations of Europeans and the adoption of European objects in Benin's art constitutes a fascinating visual document of the nature and phenomenon of cultural contact between Africa and Europe from the perspective of Africans across four centuries.

The central African specialist Wyatt MacGaffery proposed that Benin's artworks should be used to study the opinions of Africans and show how the meeting between the indigenous and the foreign must be viewed as two sided. This article proves that the Benin artworks contain significant cultural information about the evolving nature of contacts between Africans and Europeans.

Hopefully, further studies will offer more insight into Benin's perspective of the Atlantic world, from the musket-wielding Portuguese mercenaries of the 16th century to the English traders carrying away palm oil in their boats during the 19th-century era of legitimate commerce.

References:

The Art of Benin by Paula Ben-Amos

Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

By Kate Ezra

Africa and the Renaissance: Art in Ivory by Ezio Bassani, William Buller Fagg

Benin: Royal Art of Africa from the Museum Für Völkerkunde, Vienna by Armand Duchâteau

Benin: Royal Art of Africa from the Museum Für Völkerkunde, Vienna by Armand Duchâteau

Imaging Otherness in Ivory: African Portrayals of the Portuguese by Suzanne Blier

Link