id: 160767 accession number: 1999.1 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1999.1 updated: 2023-04-26 11:23:58.184000 Plaque, 1500s–1600s. Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, Ẹdo peoples, members of the Igun Eronmwon (royal brasscasters) guild. Copper alloy; overall: 45.7 x 38.1 cm (18 x 15 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1999.1 title: Plaque title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1500s–1600s creation date earliest: 1500 creation date latest: 1699 current location: 108A Sub-Saharan creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, Ẹdo peoples, members of the Igun Eronmwon (royal brasscasters) guild technique: Copper alloy department: African Art collection: African Art type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 45.7 x 38.1 cm (18 x 15 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Commissioned from the Igun Eronmwon date: possibly 1500s-1600s. footnotes: citations: by descent to Ọba Ovọnramwẹn (Ovọnramwẹn Nogbaisi, [c. 1857–1914; r. 1888–97], Royal Palace, Benin City date: footnotes: citations: sent to England by Sir Ralph Moor following the Siege of Benin (1897) date: 1897 footnotes: *
the city of Benin and from other parts of West Africa. London: British Museum. (preface, 
unpaginated) 
the British Punitive Expedition (1897)) – undated letter on gallery letterhead, Curatorial File
citations: to the British Museum by gift from Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs date: footnotes: *
British Museum, Charles Hercules Read, and Ormonde M. Dalton. 1899. Antiquities from
the city of Benin and from other parts of West Africa. London: British Museum. (preface, 
unpaginated)
citations: British Museum, London, until 1950 as no. 98/1-5/43 date: 1897-1950 footnotes: *
the city of Benin and from other parts of West Africa. London: British Museum. (preface, 
unpaginated) 
letterhead 
• Letter of January 13, 1999 from Anna Gaudion on British Museum letterhead, Curatorial File
citations: (Sydney Burney, London, as sales agent for the British Museum, 1950, sold to Kent-Bragaline, Inc.; Edward A. Bragaline, New York City, NY) date: 1950-by at least 1963 footnotes: * citations: Edward A. Bragaline, New York City, NY, sold to private collectors date: footnotes: *
letterhead, Curatorial File
Listed and illustrated in Knoedler & Co. New York, NY (Lot 48, November 6th-23rd, 1963)
citations: (Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York City, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) date: 1999 footnotes: *
Invoice (2-1-1999), receipts, etc (Curatorial File) – as MI&N 1583
citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1999- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Look at the side of this plaque. The designs on the slender edges are considered visual "signatures" of the different casters who made plaques for the Oba of Benin. digital description: wall description: Nearly 900 metal plaques once adorned the Ọba’s palace courtyard, documenting Benin’s history and customs. This one depicts two male attendants (enobore) supporting an Ọba. It uses hierarchical composition: important figures are large and centered. Everything about the Ọba is greater than his companions: their bodies, clothing, and jewelry. The flanking attendants physically support a man weighed down by heavy royal garments and responsibilities. Brasscasters skillfully cast their clasping hands projecting from the plaque. The bottom left number means the British Museum formerly owned this. It entered their collection in 1898, one year after British troops took it from a palace storeroom during the Siege of Benin. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Museum of American Folk Art. Twentieth Century Masters from the Bragaline Collection for the Benefit of the Museum of Early American Folk Arts. New York: M. Knoedler, 1963 page number: Reproduced: p. 102, fig. 48 url: https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury00mkno/page/n101/mode/2up Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major Benin Bronze Plaque, Rembrandt Print, Other Works of Art Enter CMA Collection,” March 12, 1999, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/cmapr4240 Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. page number: Reproduced: cat. 27, p. 84 - 85 url: Gunsch, Kathryn Wysocki. The Benin Plaques: A 16th Century Imperial Monument. London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018. page number: Mentioned: p. 152; reproduced: p. 162, fig. 2A 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. url: Digital Benin, Markk Museum Am Rothenbaum Kulturen und Kunste der Welt, (Last Updated: 2021-02-13) page number: ID 160767 url: https://digitalbenin.org/catalogue/8_160767 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1999.1/1999.1_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1999.1/1999.1_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1999.1/1999.1_full.tif