id: 147489 accession number: 1973.221 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.221 updated: 2022-06-10 18:38:19.818000 Hen, 1900s. Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, Ẹdo peoples, member(s) of the Igbesanmwan (wood and ivory carvers) guild. Wood; overall: 47.6 cm (18 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Katherine C. White 1973.221 title: Hen title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1900s creation date earliest: 1900 creation date latest: 1925 current location: 108A Sub-Saharan creditline: Gift of Katherine C. White copyright: --- culture: Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, Ẹdo peoples, member(s) of the Igbesanmwan (wood and ivory carvers) guild technique: wood department: African Art collection: African Art type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 47.6 cm (18 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1973 opening date: 1974-01-30T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1973. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 30-March 17, 1974). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * African Tribal Images: The Katherine White Reswick Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10 – September 1, 1968) * Icon and symbol : The cult of the ancestor in African art. Cranbrook Academy of Art/Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI (May 30–July 20, 1975) --- PROVENANCE Commissioned from the Igbesanmwan, Benin Kingdom date: 1900s footnotes: citations: (Robert L. Stolper gallery, New York City) date: no earlier than 1961 footnotes: citations: Katherine C. White [1929-1980], Gates Mills, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: by at least 1962 footnotes: * Per email from KWL 8/30/2021
• Photo negative in curatorial file with reference date 1/1/1962
• Published in African Tribal Images (CMA 1968) as cat. No. 150 citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1973– footnotes: * Per email from KWL 8/30/2021
Acquired as gift at December 28, 1973 meeting
• Acquisition publicized in CMA Bulletin Feb 1974 “Year in Review 1973” (cat. #13, repr. p. 71) citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Materials used for ritual objects correspond with the status of their owner, or the person it was dedicated to. Men have cast brass roosters, while women have carved wooden hens like this. This egg-shaped bird is covered with patterns formed by parallel lines indicating the bird’s feathers, from fluffy tufts to sleek plumage. Realistically carved, it replicates an animal that would be sacrificed on a woman’s shrine. On an ancestral altar, it sat alongside other objects like rattle staffs. While Benin is patriarchal (men and their male sons lead), women are important; men cannot succeed spiritually or politically without them. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS "The Year in Review for 1968." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 61, no. 2 (February 1974): 31-78. page number: Reproduced: p. 71, cat. 13; mentioned: p. 73, cat. 13 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152513 Fagg, William. African Tribal Images; the Katherine White Reswick Collection. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968. page number: Reproduced: cat. 150 url: Broudy, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Youngblood. Icon and Symbol : The Cult of the Ancestor in African Art. Bloomfield Hills, MI: Cranbrook Academy of Art/Museum, 1975 page number: 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 and Mentioned: P. 34-35. url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.221/1973.221_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.221/1973.221_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.221/1973.221_full.tif