H x W x D: 20 × 15.2 × 6 cm (7 7/8 × 6 × 2 3/8 in.)
Type:
Jewelry
Geography:
Nigeria
Date:
18th-19th century
Label Text:
Despite the unusual shape and open-worked background, this pendant uses conventional images of wealth and power. Royal beads, Portuguese faces and hands to grasp wealth border a European merchant and a valuable horse.
Description:
Cast copper alloy pendant, D-shaped, composed of a bearded European man next to a horse with an open lattice background, a border of linked cylinders and a bottom border of 3-heads and 4-grasping hands.
Provenance:
Aaron Furman Gallery, New York, 1959
Joseph H. Hirshhorn, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1959 to 1966
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1966 to 1985
Exhibition History:
Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 4, 2017-ongoing (deinstalled November 22, 2021)
Chief S.O. Alonge: Photographer to the Royal Court of Benin, Nigeria, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 17, 2014-July 31, 2016
Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present, Detroit Institute of Arts, April 18-August 8, 2010; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, September 25, 2010-January 9, 2011
The Ancient West African City of Benin, A.D. 1300-1897, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 28, 1987-June 1, 2004
Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 25, 1989-September 3, 1990
The Stranger Among Us, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., March 24-September 7, 1982
Published References:
Cole, Herbert M. 1989. Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 143, no. 167.
Freyer, Bryna. 1987. Royal Benin Art in the Collection of the National Museum of African Art. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, no. 20.
Quarcoopome, Nii (ed). 2009. Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present. Detroit: Detroit Museum of Art, pp. 140-141, no. 3.
Content Statement:
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High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
