plaque Ifé - Sculpture - Nigeria (No reserve price)

BINI EDO NIGERIA/BENIN PALACE PLAQUE. reproduction from the late 20th century There is no gratuitousness in the execution of these historiated plaques, true comic strips of the ancient Kingdom of Benin. TO THE ORIGINS ... Decorative plaques, court objects, are as important as the heads or statues of kings or queens belonging to the court of the Kingdom of Benin City. . Like any court art, these artworks aim to celebrate the grandeur of the kings and their entourage. Lost-wax casting was introduced into the Benin kingdom from Ife in the 16th century. At that period, the Ife style was in decline. Stylistically, the differences are evident and the works of the two kingdoms show a noticeable gap in the treatment of the figures, for example. The traveler Dapper was one of the first to mention the Benin bronze plaques. They covered, according to some, palace pillars; according to others, walls. One characteristic of these plaques is the adoption of a hierarchical perspective: the size of the figures indicates their social importance. Duchateau (1990,45) does not exclude the existence of foreign influences in these works: their forms could derive from the little picture books that the Portuguese had brought with them. However, one should not think that Portuguese artists came to teach lost-wax casting. In today’s Nigeria alone, there are at least three major centers of lost-wax casting: Ife, Benin-City and Igbo-Ukwu.

Estimate:£0.84

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