64
ART ON VIEW
One of his asen features a crab (fi g. 16), an important
motif in Ouidah that references a local Hueda
man named Kpate (or Kpase) who, prior to 1671,
saw the fi rst European ships offshore and invited
them to town. He was gathering crabs on the shore
when, on recognizing a sailing vessel on the horizon,
he attached a cloth to a pole to get their attention.
Kapate is celebrated today as the hero who
brought European trade.
5. Hountondji Royal Guild members: Abomey.
Late nineteenth to twentieth century (fi gs. 4, 17,
and 18). This royal Abomey court guild was responsible
for works of jewelry, scepters, and other
arts made in part from precious import metals—
silver and copper. Among its production are asen
of the sort commissioned by King Agoli-Agbo between
1894 and 1900 and those created for royal
and other families in the decades that followed.
After 1910, the Hountondji Royal Guild artists
also began fashioning asen scenes of brass made
through lost-wax casting, a tradition that owes its
roots to another talented smith, Tahozangbe’s son,
Gnassounou Hountondji, who attended the Colonial
Exposition in Marseilles in 1906 and learned
this art form there. He likely created several of the
works in this exhibition and also passed this skill
on to successors in this guild (fi gs. 17 and 18).
In the years following the French colonial takeover
of Dahomey in 1892–94, the local patronage
system for asen changed considerably. Once the
prerogative of Dahomey’s kings, increasingly they
were made available to other families, including
the many princely descendants of Kings Glele, Gbehenzin,
and Agoli-Agbo, for family asenxo honoring
important ancestors. The Hountondji guild
members not only worked on private commissions
for these and other families but also sold more generic
asen forms in the Abomey market there (fi g.
3). The sales of asen sculptures through this means
is consistent with other sales for art objects such
as carved wooden bocio power fi gures and hohovi
twin sculptures. Only when asen and these other
arts receive the requisite offerings and sanctifying
prayers are they considered to hold sacred power.
Once such offerings are stopped, the asen lose their
FIG. 8 (left): Asen by the
Master of the Rolled-
Brimmed Hat. Ouidah,
Republic of Benin. Mid–late
19th century.
Iron. H: 88.5 cm.
Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva,
inv. 1010-25.
A man in a cap and cape sits on a
throne. In front is a closed calabash
gourd positioned on a spiral-footed
support. On each side are cut iron
crosses and to the rear is a banana
tree.
FIG. 9 (below): Asen by
the Master of the Rolled-
Brimmed Hat. Ouidah,
Republic of Benin.
Mid–late 19th century.
Iron. H: 134 cm.
Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva, inv.
1010-52.
A man in a rolled brimmed hat
and with a cloth draped over his
shoulder sits on a djandemen throne.
In one hand he holds a long, curving
pipe and in the other a chain. A
rooster and a chicken fl ank him and
a large closed vessel is positioned
in front.