Benin - 9780300136777

The Benin Kingdom, located in present-day southwestern Nigeria, has roots that stretch back to the thirteenth century. In the late fifteenth century, the kingdom established a mercantile relationship with Portugal, greatly increasing its wealth and might. Benin became a regional powerhouse and, under a long lineage of divine rulers, or obas, it wielded great economic and political influence. The obas also supported guilds of artists - chief among them brass casters and ivory carvers - whom they employed to produce objects that honor royal ancestors and glorify history and court life. The sophisticated creations of Benin's royal artists stand among the greatest works of African art today.
Published in concert with a major international exhibition, for which the Art Institute of Chicago is the sole North American venue, Benin: Royal Arts of a West African Kingdom highlights twenty-two masterworks that reveal the breadth and depth of the kingdom's artistic corpus, including finely cast brass figures, altar heads, and wall plaques, as well as ivory pendants, boxes, and arm cuffs embellished in detailed bas relief. An insightful essay by Art Institute curator Kathleen Bickford Berzock outlines the kingdom's history and sheds light on these works of art by describing their making and function in the context of the royal court.