Queen Mother Head
Artist: Edo Peoples, Benin City (African)
Date: late 19th century
Dimensions:
H. 18 1/2 in. (47.0 cm)
Medium: Bronze
Place of Origin: Nigeria
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1958.4
Label Text:Benin kings (Obas) commemorate their mothers by placing a cast brass head on an ancestral altar. These sculptures celebrate the special occult and military powers of Idia, the venerable mother of the 16th-century Oba Esigie. Esigie recognized his mother’s importance to his own authority by creating for her the title Iye Oba (“Queen Mother”) and giving her her own independent court. The head features the peaked hairstyle known as the “chicken’s beak,” still worn my royal women of the Benin court today. The objects in the hair represent coral bead ornaments. A semicircular opening in the top of the head, behind the peak, formerly supported a carved ivory tusk.
On view
In Collection(s)