{
"data": {
"id": 117905,
"accession_number": "1938.6",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Ancestral Commemorative Head (uhunmwun-elao), possibly mid-1500s or early 1600s. Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, \u1eb8do 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",
"current_location": "108A African",
"title": "Ancestral Commemorative Head (uhunmwun-elao)",
"creation_date": "possibly mid-1500s or early 1600s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1550,
"creation_date_latest": 1625,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, \u1eb8do peoples, members of the Igun Eronmwon (royal brasscasters) guild"
],
"technique": "Copper alloy and iron",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 29.9 x 21.6 x 20.4 cm (11 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 8 1/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.299,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.216,
"width_inch": 8,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"depth": 0.204,
"depth_inch": 8,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.0625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 312477,
"title": "Treasure of Ivories and Bronzes from the Ancient Kingdom of Benin",
"description": "Treasure of Ivories and Bronzes from the Ancient Kingdom of Benin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-April 11, 1937).",
"opening_date": "1937-03-10T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312341,
"title": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition",
"description": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).",
"opening_date": "1941-06-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 355504,
"title": "Exhibition of the Month: Texture in Art",
"description": "Exhibition of the Month: Texture in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 6-December 8, 1947).",
"opening_date": "1947-10-06T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "African Negro Art. Howard University, Founders Library Art Gallery, Washington, DC (May 6\u2013 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": [
{
"description": "Commissioned from the Igun Eronmwon",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "Possibly mid-1500s or early 1600s.",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "By descent to \u1eccba Ov\u1ecdnramw\u1eb9n (Ov\u1ecdnramw\u1eb9n Nogbaisi [c. 1857\u20131914; r. 1888\u20131897], Royal Palace, Benin City",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "c.1857\u20131897",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Brought to Europe following the Siege of Benin",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1897",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "(Fosters & Co., London or France, probably sold to Louis Carr\u00e9 and/or Charles Ratton)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Savoy, B\u00e9n\u00e9dicte, Charlotte Guichard, and Christine Howald. 2018. Acquiring cultures: histories of
world art on Western markets. P. 274
"
],
"date": "c. 1929\u20131932",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "(Louis Carr\u00e9, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH January 17, 1938)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"\u2022 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
\u2022 Illustrated in Negatives 963447 and 963448, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives
"
],
"date": "by at least 1937",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Purchase/Carr\u00e9 provenance publicized in CMA Bulletin March 1938 (Helen S. Foote, \u201cTwo Bronzes
from Benin, pp. 49-50, 48)
"
],
"date": "1938\u2013",
"sortorder": 6
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The obas (kings) of the Benin Kingdom still wear coral headpieces and jewelry like this sculpted head depicts.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Brass heads are among many objects a new \u1eccba commissions when dedicating a shrine to their predecessor. This head of an \u1eccba wears layered necklaces of royal coral beads. Tubular beads adorn both the netted cap and slender braids alongside his temples. While representing an individual, his facial features and calm expression are idealized. The thickly cast head once supported a tusk. Immune to corrosion, brass symbolizes royal permanence. A personal religious object, this head sat on an ancestral altar in the \u1eccba\u2019s palace. Like many works taken from Benin altars, this contrasts with its present-day public display in an American museum.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60778993"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1938.6-ancestral-commemorat"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "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"
},
{
"citation": "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"
},
{
"citation": "\"Au Cleveland Museum of Art.\" Mouseion. (April 1938) 13-14.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 13",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Washington Howard University Gallery of Art. Exhibition of African Negro Art. Washington: Howard University Gallery of Art, 1953.",
"page_number": "cat no. 33",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "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"
},
{
"citation": "Burton, Richard. \"In Cleveland: The Idea of a Museum.\" Museums Journal 63, no. 4 (1964): 263-73.",
"page_number": "p. 266, fig.70",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "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"
},
{
"citation": "Fagg, William. African Tribal Images; the Katherine White Reswick Collection. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968.",
"page_number": "no. 144",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Moore, Janet Gaylord. The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art. 1968.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "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"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Berthold Fricke. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Hannover: Knorr & Hirth, 1970.",
"page_number": "p. 102",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "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"
},
{
"citation": "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": ""
},
{
"citation": "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": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. 1991.",
"page_number": "no. 41",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "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": ""
},
{
"citation": "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": ""
},
{
"citation": "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": ""
},
{
"citation": "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"
},
{
"citation": "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": null
},
{
"citation": "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": ""
},
{
"citation": "Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. \u201cArt from the Benin Kingdom.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 34-35.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 34; Mentioned: P. 35.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "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"
}
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"creditline": "Dudley P. Allen Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
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"athena_id": 117905,
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1938-01-17T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1550,
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"date_text": "possibly mid-1500s or early 1600s",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Altar Portrait of a Deceased Oba",
"Head"
],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-08-03 14:10:56.802000"
}
}