an amazing face

This face - The Queen Mother Pendant Mask, aka The Benin Ivory Mask - gets a whole blog.

This carved ivory mask from the Benin kingdom is probably one of the most recognized pieces of African art. In order to stitch it, I needed to understand exactly what I was looking at. So, here’s what I’ve learned:

There is not just one mask - there are four. From left to right, these are the masks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC: The British Museum in London, the Seattle Art Museum and the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

All were looted by the British from the palace of the Oba (king) of Benin in the Punitive Benin Expedition of 1897. That attack brought down the Benin Empire, a major power in the region since the 11th century AD.

according to: https://alchetron.com/ The Benin-ivory-mask is an miniature sculptural portrait in ivory of the powerful Queen Mother Idia of the 16th century Benin Empire, taking the form of an African traditional mask. The likeness was worn however, not as a mask, but as a pendant by her son Esigie, who owed his kingship as Oba of Benin to the Queen Mother's military aid.

It’s not all that miniature, standing at 9 3/8” tall. Until I saw this photo, I never realized that there are 3 rows of figures in the tiara. About those figures….

The British mask (Above) has Portuguese men. Recent arrivals to Benin, the Portuguese were a symbol of power to the royal court, and are identifiable by their long hair, hanging mustaches, and domed hats. Perhaps they were the inspiration for the really bad movie Battlefield Earth….. or that character in Pirates of the Caribbean…?

Anyhow……The Met mask (Below) has men and mudfish.

Why mudfish? What IS a mudfish?

Wiki says that mudfish, who could live on land and sea, reflected the divinity of the Oba.  Edo cosmology believed that spirits crossed the ocean to reach the afterlife, so the mudfish symbolized the duality needed for the leader's final journey.

Mudfish can be up to five feet long. Because they can breathe air, they are able to crawl on dry ground and can survive in mud between rains.

https://africa.si.edu/exhibits/animals/mudfish.html For the Akan, Yoruba and Benin people, there is a fish--commonly called the mudfish--that is both mythical and real. In art and oral literature, the mudfish combines the traits of several species of fish and is an icon of wealth and the divine powers of rulers. The real fish lives when others would die-either by crawling on land or burying itself in the mud of the streambed. Some of the fish also have a dangerous electric charge, which one might equate with the ruler's power as a judge. Picture a combination of a catfish and an electric eel.

This photo (below) shows lungfish curled around, and a similar pose in a Benin sculpture.

I think this bracelet (Below) actually shows both men and mudfish more clearly.

Yes, enough about mudfish….

Now - what about those 2 big gashes on her forehead? I had always assumed that they were some missing piece which allowed it to be attached to a belt. Nope. They are inlaid metal and carved scarification marks. The attachment loops are on the side of her head.

Scarification: an ‘Ancient’ African Tattoo Culture, at https://afrolegends.com/2015/09/16/scarification-an-ancient-african-tattoo-culture/ explains the history of scarification, and mentions the mask.

Almost finished. The collar of the Met version has more Portuguese men, the British  mask has latticework.

Finally, we come to the upper forehead - the almost-worn-away texture of beading which was carved into the ivory. To make a pitiful approximation of this texture, I glued tiny beads to the felt, then stitched the cloth around the beads and through the holes.

And here is my almost finished stitching of the Met version of the Benin Ivory Mask.

More faces next week

Stay safe. Stay sane.

Diane