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Idiophone/Staff (ahianmwẹn-ọrọ)

possibly 1800s

Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, Ẹdo peoples, members of the Igun Eronmwon (royal brasscasters) guild

Copper alloy

Overall: 36.2 x 9.9 cm (14 1/4 x 3 7/8 in.)

James Albert Ford Memorial Fund 1938.5

Location

108A Sub-Saharan

Did you know?

An image of the ahianmwẹn-ọrọ (bird of prophecy) once sat atop the roof of the palace in the Benin Kingdom.

Description

Courtiers, priests, and senior chiefs strike instruments like this during the Ugie Ọrọ festival. The long-legged metal bird refers to the 16th-century ruler Ọba Ẹsigie. Wings outstretched with long, textured feathers, it is the ahianmwẹn-ọrọ (bird of prophecy). It stares outward, a likely magical substance clenched in its beak. Such a bird prophesied Ẹsigie’s defeat and death during the Idah War (about 1515–17), leading his people to resist fighting for him. When Ẹsigie triumphed, bronze bird effigies were beaten for days on end throughout the year. This punished the false avian prophet and shamed the cowardly men.

Provenance

possibly 1800s

Commissioned from the Igun Eronmwon

c.1857–1897

By descent to Ọba Ovọnramwẹn (Ovọnramwẹn Nogbaisi, [c. 1857–1914; r. 1888–97], Royal Palace, Benin City

1897

Brought to Europe following the Siege of Benin

c. 1929–1932

(Fosters & Co., London or France, probably sold to Louis Carré and/or Charles Ratton) ¹

by at least 1935

(Louis Carré, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, January 17, 1938) ²

1938–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH ³

Provenance Footnotes

¹Savoy, Bénédicte, Charlotte Guichard, and Christine Howald. 2018. Acquiring cultures: histories of
world art on Western markets. P. 274

²Louis Carré by at least 1935
• Exhibited at M. Knoedler and Company NYC Nov-December 1935; as number 28 (described and
illustrated)
Louis Carré, Paris, by at least 1937
• Illustrated in Negatives 963447 and 963448, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives

³Purchase/Carré provenance publicized in CMA Bulletin March 1938 (Helen S. Foote, “Two Bronzes
from Benin, pp. 49-50, 48)

Citations

Foote, Helen S. "Two Bronzes from Benin." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 25, no. 3 (1938): 48-50. Mentioned: p. 50; illustrated p. 48

Lane, James W. "Current Exhibitions." Parnassus Vol. 7, no. VII (December 1935): 26-31, 35. Reproduced: p. 31.

"Au Cleveland Museum of Art." Mouseion. (April 1938) 13-14. Mentioned: p. 13

Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: fig. 4, p. 15

Petridis, Constantine. "A World of Great Art for Everyone." In Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011. Mentioned: p. 113, 119

Bronzes and Ivories from the Old Kingdom of Benin: Exhibition from November 25 to December 14, 1935 At the Galleries of M. Knoedler and Company 14 East 57 Street New York City. New York: M. Knoedler and Company, [1935]. Mentioned: Fig. 28 (illustrated)

Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. “Art from the Benin Kingdom.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 34-35. Reproduced: P. 34; Mentioned: P. 35.

Digital Benin, Markk Museum Am Rothenbaum Kulturen und Kunste der Welt, (Last Updated: 2021-02-13) ID 117894 digitalbenin.org

Exhibition history

Knoedlers, NY, Exhibition of Bronzes and Ivories from the Ancient Kingdom of Benin, November 25-December 4, 1935, cat. no. 28, fig. 28.

CMA 1937: Ivories and Bronzes from the Ancient Kingdom of Benin, cat. #28.

Seattle, WA, Seattle Art Museum, The Bird in Art, June 6-August 12, 1956.

Oberlin, OH, Allen Art Museum, Baldwin Lectures of Mr. Roy Sieber, March 5-March 31, 1972.

Baldwin Lectures of Mr. Roy Sieber. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (March 5-31, 1972).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Idiophone/Staff (ahianmwẹn-ọrọ)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1938.5|year=possibly 1800s|access-date=02 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Idiophone/Staff (ahianmwẹn-ọrọ)

Idiophone/Staff (ahianmwẹn-ọrọ)

Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, Ẹdo peoples, members of the Igun Eronmwon (royal brasscasters) guild

Location

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Description

Provenance Footnotes

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