id: 117905
accession number: 1938.6
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1938.6
updated: 2024-08-08 15:13:28.035000
Ancestral Commemorative Head (uhunmwun-elao), possibly mid-1500s or early 1600s. Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, Ẹdo peoples, members of the Igun Eronmwon (royal brasscasters) guild. Copper alloy and iron; overall: 29.9 x 21.6 x 20.4 cm (11 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 8 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 1938.6
title: Ancestral Commemorative Head (uhunmwun-elao)
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: possibly mid-1500s or early 1600s
creation date earliest: 1550
creation date latest: 1625
current location: 108A Sub-Saharan
creditline: Dudley P. Allen Fund
copyright:
---
culture: Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, Ẹdo peoples, members of the Igun Eronmwon (royal brasscasters) guild
technique: Copper alloy and iron
department: African Art
collection: African Art
type: Sculpture
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
---
CREATORS
---
measurements: Overall: 29.9 x 21.6 x 20.4 cm (11 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 8 1/16 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
---
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Treasure of Ivories and Bronzes from the Ancient Kingdom of Benin
opening date: 1937-03-10T05:00:00
Treasure of Ivories and Bronzes from the Ancient Kingdom of Benin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-April 11, 1937).
title: The Silver Jubilee Exhibition
opening date: 1941-06-23T04:00:00
The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
title: Exhibition of the Month: Texture in Art
opening date: 1947-10-06T05:00:00
Exhibition of the Month: Texture in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 6-December 8, 1947).
---
LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'African Negro Art. Howard University, Founders Library Art Gallery, Washington, DC (May 6– 31, 1953) .', 'opening_date': '1953-05-06T04:00:00Z'}
* {'description': 'Seaway Luncheons.. East Ohio Gas Company Building, Cleveland, OH (week of June 8, 1959).', 'opening_date': '1959-06-08T04:00:00Z'}
---
PROVENANCE
Commissioned from the Igun Eronmwon
date: Possibly mid-1500s or early 1600s.
footnotes:
citations:
By descent to Ọba Ovọnramwẹn (Ovọnramwẹn Nogbaisi [c. 1857–1914; r. 1888–1897], Royal Palace, Benin City
date: c.1857–1897
footnotes:
citations:
Brought to Europe following the Siege of Benin
date: 1897
footnotes:
citations:
(Fosters & Co., London or France, probably sold to Louis Carré and/or Charles Ratton)
date: c. 1929–1932
footnotes:
* Savoy, Bénédicte, Charlotte Guichard, and Christine Howald. 2018. Acquiring cultures: histories of
world art on Western markets. P. 274
citations:
(Louis Carré, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH January 17, 1938)
date: by at least 1937
footnotes:
* • Illustrated in Milliken, William M. "Treasure of Ivories and Bronzes from the Ancient Kingdom of
Benin." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 24, no. 3 (1937): 35-36
• Illustrated in Negatives 963447 and 963448, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1938–
footnotes:
* Purchase/Carré provenance publicized in CMA Bulletin March 1938 (Helen S. Foote, “Two Bronzes
from Benin, pp. 49-50, 48)
citations:
---
fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
---
RELATED WORKS
---
CITATIONS
Milliken, William M. "Treasure of Ivories and Bronzes from the Ancient Kingdom of Benin." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 24, no. 3 (1937): 35-36.
page number: illustrated, unnumbered plate
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25137830
Foote, Helen S. 1938. "Two Bronzes from Benin". Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 25: 48-50.
page number: mentioned p. 49; illustrated p. 48
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25137915
"Au Cleveland Museum of Art." Mouseion. (April 1938) 13-14.
page number: Mentioned: p. 13
url:
Washington Howard University Gallery of Art. Exhibition of African Negro Art. Washington: Howard University Gallery of Art, 1953.
page number: cat no. 33
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 386
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n72
Burton, Richard. "In Cleveland: The Idea of a Museum." Museums Journal 63, no. 4 (1964): 263-73.
page number: p. 266, fig.70
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page number: Reproduced: p. 303
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n327
Fagg, William. African Tribal Images; the Katherine White Reswick Collection. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968.
page number: no. 144
url:
Moore, Janet Gaylord. The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art. 1968.
page number:
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page number: Reproduced: p. 303
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n327
Cleveland Museum of Art, and Berthold Fricke. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Hannover: Knorr & Hirth, 1970.
page number: p. 102
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page number: Reproduced: p. 411
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n431
Anderson, Ross, and Barbara Perry. The Diversions of Keramos: American Clay Sculpture, 1925-1950. 1983.
page number: p. 79, repr. p. 79, fig. 6:5.
url:
Cleveland Museum of Art, and Henry John Drewal. African Art: A Brief Guide to the Collection : the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Museum, 1989.
page number: fig.5.
url:
Cleveland Museum of Art. Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. 1991.
page number: no. 41
url:
Perani, Judith, and Fred. T. Smith. The Visual Arts of Africa: Gender, Power, and Life Cycle Rituals. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.
page number: fig. 6.7, pp. 175-176
url:
May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.
page number: no. 69, p. 67, 118
url:
Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.
page number: Reproduced: cat. 25, p. 80 - 81
url:
Binder, Lisa, "Mr. Aitken, I Presume", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 44 no. 05, May 2004
page number: Mentioned & reproduced: p. 12
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2004-05/page/12
Petridis, Constantine. "A World of Great Art for Everyone." In Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.
page number: Mentioned: p. 113, 119
url:
Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 31; Reproduced: P. 26-27
url:
Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. “Art from the Benin Kingdom.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 34-35.
page number: Reproduced: P. 34; Mentioned: P. 35.
url:
Digital Benin, Markk Museum Am Rothenbaum Kulturen und Kunste der Welt, (Last Updated: 2021-02-13)
page number: ID 117905
url: https://digitalbenin.org/catalogue/8_117905
---
IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.6/1938.6_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.6/1938.6_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1938.6/1938.6_full.tif