Benin Pendant Mask

Benin Pendant Mask

Mask versions at the Met and the British Museum.
Material	Ivory, inlay
Created	16th century
Present location	Metropolitan Museum of Art, British Museum

The Benin Pendant Mask is an ivory mask and miniature portrait of Queen Mother Idia of the Benin Empire, worn as a pendant by her son the monarch Esigie, ruling as Oba at the Benin court during the early 16th century (in modern Nigeria). Two almost identical masks are extant: one at the British Museum in London and the other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

There are also examples on the same theme at the Seattle Art Museum and the Linden Museum, and one in a private collection.

The two masks were probably made in the early sixteenth century, when Queen Idia, mother of Oba Esigie, ruled the Benin court. The British Museum and Met Museum's examples are virtually the same, with only minor decorative differences. Both pendants denote a powerful image of monarchal elegance, having a crown composed of a series of minute heads that represent bearded Portuguese men, who were significant traders with the Benin Empire at the time. West African lungfish, like the Portuguese depicted, symbolize the powerful duality of land and water. The foreheads of both masks were inlaid with a pair of iron strips to denote scarification marks. The band below the chin is slightly different in the two surviving examples. The collar band on the example in the Metropolitan Museum is damaged. There are also small amounts of another metal, identified as copper by the Met, and as bronze by the British Museum.