Tribal Art

This refined late sculpture, based on a work that was made on the queen's death, depicts a queen mother of Benin named the Iyoba, whose neck is surrounded by multiple necklaces of coral pearls. Her high curved hairstyle was also made up of a beaded silla falling on either side of the face.
Patine dark, moist, golden reflections. After the birth of the future king, the queen was power and could no longer engender. But at the end of the 15th century the Oba Esigie refused to comply with this practice and wanted to attribute the city of Uselu to his mother. She also received a palace and many privileges. In recognition she raised an army to fight the Northern Igala. The Oba had a head cast in his effigy, among many works cast with lost wax, to place them on his altar after his death.
-African art of Benin is described as a court art because it is closely associated with the king, known as Oba. The tradition of bronze court objects in the Benin kingdom dates back to the 14th century. The many bronze alloy heads and statues created by Benin's artists were reserved for the exclusive use of the inhabitants of the royal palace and, more often than not, placed on altars consecrated by each new Oba. These rectangular altars were topped with heads, statues, carved ivory tusks, bells and sticks. They were used to commemorate an oba and to come into contact with his spirit.