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@laurajg.bsky.social Sep 27, 2026, 1:52 PM

By Ìgùn Ẹ́rọ̀nwwọ̀n (brass-casting guild) artists, Nigeria, Court of Benin, Horn Player, ca. 1550–1680, brass & iron, 24 3/4 × 11 1/2 × 6 3/4 in. (62.9 × 29.2 × 17.2 cm), looted by the British army, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. More in ALT. #arthistory #art #africanart #africaart #Sculpture

From the museum: “This figure of a court musician playing a side-blown trumpet attests to the technical virtuosity of the Benin bronze-casters. The figure's elaborately textured garment depicts the hide of a leopard, an animal associated with the power of the Oba. Similarly, the strands of coral around his neck and chest reaffirm this musician's status in the Benin court, since coral, like bronze and ivory, is a royal prerogative in Benin.”

Also from the museum: “The British invasion of the capital of the Kingdom of Benin in 1897 was part of a campaign waged from 1892 through 1902 to forcibly bring most of the inland territory of modern-day Nigeria under British rule. With the British conquest of Benin City, Oba Ovonramwen was exiled to Calabar and soldiers plundered the palace. The brutality of the removal of its contents has forever decoupled altars dedicated to each individual oba dating from 1300 to Benin’s conquest with the specific works conceived to commemorate them…

Subsequent to the nineteenth century dispersal of Benin works, awareness of their extraordinary aesthetic power, beauty, and complexity profoundly influenced Black public intellectuals. Notable among these in the U.S. were W.E.B. Dubois, Alain Locke and artists from the Harlem Renaissance on. At the same time, their relegation to ethnographic museums during the colonial era continues to reflect the legacy of their forceful removal and segregation from comparable cultural achievements by Western creators.”

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