Galerie Peter Herrmann

Ancient Art from Africa - Benin & Ife

Thermoluminescence - Expertise

Though the established and apparently conclusive interpretation of this motif is as gateway to the royal palace (see previous plaque), the latest research presents alternative readings. Both Frank Willett and Barbara Blackmun see this as neither entranceway nor passageway, but rather as an alter at whose entrance stood something to be guarded - something invisible to the viewer.

The lack of mounting holes in this plaque is unusual, given that all those plaques ripped from the palace walls by the British expedition in the course of its 1897 robbery feature them. Some plaques were apparently embedded directly in doors and panels without the aid of such holes. According to oral tradition, the bronze guild often cast at least two plaques of one motif; one would be hung and the other stored. Today, the stored pieces exhibit no wear and tear whatsoever.

Cp.:
Felix von LUSCHAN: Die Altertümer von Benin, Band 1, Berlin 1919, S. 253/ 254.
Armand DUCHATEAU: Benin. Kunst einer afrikanischen Königskultur, München 1995, S. 58.
Barbara PLANKENSTEINER (Hg.): Benin. Könige und Rituale. Höfische Kunst aus Nigeria, Wien 2007, S. 278.