Within a short period of time, we are fortunate to acquire another old depiction of a woman of small stature. The figure is in very good, well-maintained condition with an evenly grown patina and no damage. This suggests that it was kept in a safe place in a sacred shrine, which was well cared for over many generations.
Peter Herrmann can date the motif of this piece to the 13th century based on an exhibit presented on the next page, and with a delivery in 2007 even to the 11th century, thus contradicting the assumption that the technique of bronze casting was brought from Ife to Benin during the 14th century. Little attention is paid to the possibility of geographical development. East of the ethnic Bini, bronze casting had been documented among the Ibo since the 7th century and, according to this assumption, would have arrived first among the Bini and only later among the Ife-Yoruba. My assumption was confirmed by the ‘Ine’, head of the bronze casters' guild in Benin, Chief K. Osarhenhen Inneh, during a lecture in 2007, when he spoke of his organisation's thousand-year-old tradition. Based on this dating, it can be assumed that the craft existed long before it was structurally organised.
One special feature is their size in relation to their age. In terms of chronology, the dwarfs are enormous big in comparison to other objects, which points to their special significance. From the seventh to around the sixteenth century, many alloys came through the desert from areas of what is now Iraq and Iran. It was only then, up from 16th century, that metals from Central Europe began to arrive, mainly via the Portuguese, and possibly also via the Dutch. Among other places, these came from what is now Germany. Even without knowing the exact prices from the period before European contact, one can imagine how expensive metals were at that time.
Since Lomé will no longer play the same role in the trade of traditional West African art in 2025 as it did at the end of the 1990s, he is focusing on a small number of dealers. Estates are a phenomenon for rare old objects. They are now being offered on several occasions by women whose deceased husbands were collectors or dealers. Exports from Nigeria are becoming increasingly rare and are very difficult to detect due to the large number of excellent replicas.
Cp.:
Felix von LUSCHAN: Die Altertümer von Benin, Band 1, Berlin 1919, S. 299/ 300.
Philip J. C. DARK: An introduction to Benin art and technology, Oxford 1973, S. 97.
Paula Girshick BEN-AMOS: The art of Benin, London 1995, S. 43.
Barbara PLANKENSTEINER (Hg.): Benin. Könige und Rituale. Höfische Kunst aus Nigeria, Wien 2007, S. 308 - 311. |
