Module 6 Africa
Iyoba Pendant Mask
At first glance of this piece the thing that captures my eye
is the personality in the face. To me it does not just look like a mask but
rather perhaps someone’s actual face. The way the eyes correlate with the mouth
it seems personal with emotion. After further research I discovered that the
purpose of this mask was a commission from the ObaEsigie (a King from Benin from
the Sixteenth Century) in honor of his mother. This mask would not have been
worn on the face, but it would be used as a pendant that sat at the waist.
The Oba wore it to commemorate his mother. In likeness to
his mother, it a glamorized likeness of her. The ivory in which it was made to
symbolize, off the color white, ritual purity associated with Olokun (god of
the sea). Olokun represented the wealth and fertility. One could also see that
she wears a necklace of kinds and bares what looks like scar marks in the face
in which likely were filled with gold or some other high valued material. In
the hair of the masks one can see the figures of people in which are the
mudfish and the Portuguese, symbolizing Oba’s power.
The Portuguese on their own were seen as denizens from the
spirit realm who brought power and wealth. Whereas the mudfish were a
representation of the king’s divine and dual nature as a human. This was based off
the mudfishes ability to be able to exist in the water and on land. In which fueled the domain of Oba. What this
tells me is that the royals of Benin had a very good relationship with the
Portuguese. In many ways it seems they credit the Portuguese for their wealth
and even see them as spiritual guides. What this pendant informs me about the
Benin people and their feelings towards family is that they care a lot.
It appears in many ways that Oba really does credit him
mother for a lot of what he was able to achieve by implementing a lot of this
honored king traits into a mask pendant of his mother. It was known as well
that she was indeed the one who secured his lineage. After ObaEsigies father
died he was left with a rival, being his brother, for the throne. So, it would
be understandable him to feel this way towards his mother.
Work Cited
Talks, HENI, and HENI
Talks. “Benin Ivory Mask (Edo Peoples).” Smarthistory, n.d.
https://smarthistory.org/ivory-mask-benin/.
metmuseum.org. Accessed March 10, 2021. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/318622.
You have great information here! I would like to see it split into a few more organized paragraphs, so there is breaks in the reading. I am curious to know more about how this mask was viewed when retrieved and how it is viewed in the 21st century. How did the museum get the mask?
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job of covering all aspects of the prompt in your post. Although, as Cayton said I would like to see this broken down into to separate paragraphs just to make it a touch easier to read and break up the individual portions of the prompt. I really think your explanation of the small figures found on the top of the mask this was very helpful. Great work on this post.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job! It is obvious you spent a lot of time on researching this mask, you have a lot of background information on this mask of where it was from, what it was for, etc. Like the two comments above mine I agree it is sort of daunting to look at such a long paragraph. Cutting it up into sections and paragraphs would make it a lot easier to follow and nicer to look at. Overall great job!
ReplyDelete-Kaitlin Bean