ART on view 84 rulers—also referred to as “trophy heads.”23 One of two such heads now on display in the gallery also comes from Pitt-Rivers’ Second Collection (fig. 7). It dates to the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century and may have graced an altar commemorating the accomplishments of a Benin king. This thinly cast piece belongs to a small group of very early works and is among the finest in this corpus. The sensitive rendering of the facial features, the almond-shaped, slightly downcast eyes, and the elegantly curved lips attest to the technical as well as aesthetic skills of Benin’s bronze casters. Captain Guy Burrows, a member of the Punitive Expedition, brought this work to England and on May 2, 1898, a relative by the name of Norman Burrows of Mellor Hall, Derbyshire, sold it to Pitt-Rivers. The museum’s catalog caption is brief and states that “the metal of this specimen is very thin, being only 1 mm. in thickness.”24 The entry in Pitt-Rivers’ Antique Works of Art from Benin is more extensive. “Well-formed head in peared on the market.15 In the catalog, beautiful watercolors of the mounted ruler showing him from the front and side can be attributed to George Frederick Waldo Johnson, a draftsman Pitt-Rivers hired in 1895 (fig. 4).16 In his Antique Works of Art from Benin, Pitt-Rivers accorded the mounted ruler an entire plate with three views, whereas most other plates depict four to six pieces (fig. 3).17 A detailed description, repeating the handwritten entry in the catalog, focuses on the sculpture’s attire and weapons. Felix von Luschan, a prominent Austrian-born anthropologist who served at the Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin from 1886–1910, also acquired art from Benin for his museum as soon as the pieces appeared on the market. In 1919 he published a 522-page definitive study of Benin art titled Die Altertümer von Benin (The Antiquities from Benin), containing 889 figures in the text and an additional 129 plates. In a section titled “Reiter” (Horsemen) he placed the Pitt-Rivers piece among the earliest and finest equestrian sculptures and compared it to an almost identical piece then in the possession of Admiral Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson, who commanded the Punitive Expedition, and which is now at the National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria.18 Von Luschan mentioned a third, equally early work which came to England through John H. Swainson, a resident agent for the Liverpool trading firm of James Pinnock in southwestern Nigeria. 19 Swainson received the sculpture as a gift from Oba Ovonramwen in 1892, and it remained in the family until the World Museum in Liverpool acquired it from a Swainson relative in 1978.20 A ROYAL DOUBLE GONG A bronze double gong, purchased from Henry Ling Roth on the same day as the mounted ruler, also had a prominent place in Pitt-Rivers’ Benin collection (fig. 5).21 It once served as a musical instrument, rhythmically struck by the king during ritual occasions. On its front and back appear royal triads, showing the monarch supported by officials on either side as he would walk in public during ceremonial occasions. Similar to the equestrian sculpture, Pitt-Rivers chose to show it in three views in Antique Works of Art from Benin (fig. 6)22 A DEFEATED RULER Scholars have identified bronze heads with finely braided, layered hairdos and coral-beaded collars closely surrounding their necks, as well as four marks on each side of their foreheads, as the heads of defeated FIG. 8: Relief plaque showing a battle scene. Edo peoples, Benin kingdom, Nigeria. 16th– 17th century. Copper alloy. H: 47 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Robert Owen Lehman Collection. Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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