Hip Ornament Representing the Head of a Benin Court Official

Unidentified Edo maker

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attributed to the early 18th century

Brass and iron

Overall: 8 in. (20.3 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through gifts from the Lathrop Fellows

999.42.33929

Geography

Site Looted: Kingdom of Benin, Nigeria, Western Africa, Africa

Period

1600-1800

Object Name

Ceremonial Artifact: Mask

Research Area

Africa

Not on view

Course History

SART 65, Architecture I, Zenovia Toloudi, Spring 2015

French Living and Learning Center, Loic Lerme, Fall 2021

HIST 5.08/AAAS 19, Africa and the World, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, Summer 2022

HIST 5.08/AAAS 19, Africa and the World, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, Summer 2022

HIST 5.08/AAAS 19, Africa and the World, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, Summer 2022

GERM 13.01, Beyond Good and Evil, Veronika Fuechtner, Fall 2022

Art History 63.02, Why Are Museums...?, Mary Coffey, Winter 2023

Philosophy 23.01, Ethics and the Arts, Kenneth Walden, Winter 2023

Art History 20.04, Faith and Empire, Beth Mattison, Spring 2023

History 10.02, Archival Research, M. Cecillia Gaposchkin, Summer 2023

Art History 63.13, Bad Art!, Katie Hornstein, Summer 2023

Philosophy 23.01, Ethics and the Arts, Kenneth Walden, Fall 2023

History 10.02, Archival Research and the Production of History, Leslie Butler, Summer 2024

Exhibition History

Art That Lives? Exploring Figural Art from Africa, Allvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 25, 2009-July 2010.

Introduction to the History of Art II, 1500 to present, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, ArtH2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 24-March 14, 2004.

Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 15, 1999- August 1, 2000.

The Beauty of the Bronze: Selections from the Hood Museum of Art, Gene Y. Kim Class of 1985 Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 13, 2012-March 18, 2014.

Works from the Continent of Africa, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-March 15, 2020.

Publication History

General Pitt-Rivers, Antique Works of Art from Benin, first published in London, 1900 (privately printed), reprinted by Hacker Art Books, Inc., New York, 1971, ill. p. 42, fig. 126-127.

Barbara Thompson, "The African Collection at the Hood Museum of Art," African Arts, Volume XXXVII, No. 2, Los Angeles: African Studies Center, University of California, 2004, ill. p. 28.

Alexander Bortolot, Art That Lives? Exploring Figural Art from Africa, Hood Mueum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009, ill. p. 5, p. 20, no. 14.

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 96, ill. plate no. 27.

Provenance

Looted by the British Punitive Expedition, in 1897; Pitt-River Museum, Farnham, Dorset, England; John Hewitt, England; Merton Simpson Gallery, New York; Donald Morris Gallery, Detroit, Michigan; Robert and Judith Weston, Detroit; Julian Kaplin, Toledo, Ohio; Estate of Julian Kaplin, Toledo, Ohio; Donald Morris Gallery, Inc., New York, New York, sold to present collection, 1999.

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