|   |   |
| | |
|
---|
Benin Bronze Figures | Benin Bronze Head of Queen | Benin Bronze Figure |
---|
  |   |   |
---|
  |   |   |
| | | |
---|
Benin Bronze Head Ife Stile | Benin Bronze Figure Ife Stile | Benin Bronze Head Ife Stile | Benin Bronze Head |
---|
  |   |   |
---|
  |   |   |
EDO IMAGES FROM THE 13th THRU 14th CENTURY EARLY PERIOD
by Claude Lockhart Clark © November 24, 2023
Edo bronze castings and Ivory carvings rank with the best of global antiquity. Many cultures in European and Asian antiquity produced excellent bronze casts, but Edo City produced the best metallurgist capable of casting with fewer flaws or flashes. The finished sculptures were lightweight and had a uniform thickness. Both Europe and America used African metallurgist to help them solve difficult problems concerning metal casting. An African slave cast the lady on top of the capitol building. The art of Edo Ivory carving is rivaled by no other ivory carving produced elsewhere.
The Ivory carvers have an utmost respect for Ivory material the same as African woodcarvers have for timber. Statements made by the artist stay with-in the structural context/confines of the material without cutting and adding ivory or wood pieces indiscriminately to complete the work of art. The artists is able to maintain Ivory or wood as a single object with parts interconnected; thus producing carved items as fine art rather have them degenerate into a display of crafty, technical showmanship used for the decorative arts.
Edo art is divided into three periods; “Early Period” which say ran as early as 13th Century to the 14th Century. The “Middle Period” from 15th to about the 16th Century is considered the golden age in Edo art also referred to as “Classical Period” or “Bronze Plaque Period” because there were so many bronze plaques done during the Middle period. The Portuguese traded copper manila for slaves, followed by the British using the same practice to obtain slaves.
The last period of art was referred to as the “Late Period” from 17th Century to the 18th Century the art went in to decline during the 19th Century. The bronze casts were thicker and heavier. Edo was getting a brass alloy metal from the British. The British were founders of the industrial age and could produce the brass metal alloyed in larger quantities than the Portuguese.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE STYLE CHARACTERISTICS THE EARLY BRONZES?
WHAT WERE THE ALLOYS?
We use the term bronze for all high quality metal casting performed using any copper alloy, but in actuality none of the Edo cast used bronze at all. Bronze is a tin copper alloy. The Edo metal casts are brass alloys composed of zinc and led deposits; with some bronzes containing traces of iron deposits.
---|
| | |
---|
Benin Bronze Head Ife Stile | Benin Bronze Figure Ife Stile | Benin Bronze Head Ife Stile |
---|
Iron deposits are far more plentiful than copper. You can melt copper at a far lower temperature than you can iron. If you don’t discover copper and copper alloys first you will probably never discover iron. That is exactly what happened in West and Central Africa.
We use the term bronze for all high quality metal casting performed using any copper alloy, but in actuality none of the Edo cast used bronze at all. Bronze is a tin copper alloy. The Edo metal casts are brass alloys composed of zinc and led deposits; with some bronzes containing traces of iron deposits.
West African skilled metal artisans first worked iron before they began using brass alloy, which they obtained through trade. Once West African artists identified brass as a low temperature alloyed metal that could melted and poured, they began to experiment with casting pretty; beautiful objects. Iron was more important for practical things such as farming, hunting, and carving wood. Brass was too fragile to use in manual labor. Iron also had both medical and magical properties which brass didn’t. Iron was spiritual driven; brass was not. This may explain why many brass casts had iron deposits in them.
“Excuse me why are you showing me manila. I am not interested. This is European stuff. It is not African”
“Just hold on you will see why in a moment”.
Some scholars push the dates of iron smelting back to 400 BC. To be on the safe I settle for the date of 200 BC. Meroe Nubian’s last civilization Presented iron smelting and iron black smith to the rest of mankind.
West and Central Africa began smelting iron shortly after 200 BC or 400 BC; which ever date is acceptable. I choose 200 BC. That is only a short time before the Christian error. Buddha appears in 500 BC. European Civilization starts at the beginning of the Christian error and Western Civilization has an exact time and date of about 3:00 in the afternoon on October 12th or 10th, 1492.
MANILA USED IN EXCHANGE FOR IVORY & SLAVES -
| | |
---|
Benin Bronze Head Ife Stile | Benin Bronze Figure Ife Stile | Benin Bronze Head Ife Stile |
---|
WITHOUT A FOOT OR PEDESTAL-
Foot and pedestal in West and Central African sculpture may mark the beginnings of European contact with African artists or Africans having contact with other Africans who had contact with Europeans.
Some Africans acquired the use of pedestals from seeing other Africans with pedestals on their sculptures. Africans often exchanged artwork through trade. The Kuba people, in the Congo Basin, were farming fruits and vegetables from America, possibly a century or more before ever seeing a Caucasian. The same could be true with Ndop figures. The older Ndop images were replaced many times. We don’t have any example of the first Ndop images.
With the exception of some silly metal baskets attached to the feet of many of the Edo sculptures; there were no pedestals on the feet of cast bronze sculptures prier to the arrival of the Portuguese.
After the arrival of Portuguese, Ovbiedo (children of Edo) metallurgist began sculpting a pedestal to the figures. Pedestals were not attached or glued to the figure. Pedestals were sculptured as apart of the figure.
---|