Traditional Work Benin Altar Tusk Overview

-Ivory -Royal Court of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria -Igbesanmwan Carvers Guild -Currently located at the Davis Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gustave Schindler -Approximately 5 feet tall The Benin kingdom was located beside a great many other cultures allowing many of their ideas and techniques to be shared. Decontexualization

The tusk at the Davis Museum stands alone where as it would typically be seated with other tusks and items. These items include brass memorial heads which the tusks sit in, figures, and ceremonial staffs and swords.

Oba's Altar Tusk. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, Oba’s Altar Tusk, c. 1850/1888.

Why is the meaning obscure even if we know the iconography?

Even though the Benin altar is meant to be publicly viewed, the tusks’ motifs are only known within the Iwebo. Ivory carvers were part of this group as well as people who were to take a position in Benin court. Bibliography

Ben-Amos, Paula. The art of Benin. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution P, 1980.

Blier, Suzanne Preston. "The Benin Kingdom: Politics, Religion, and Natural Order." The royal arts of Africa : the majesty of form. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1998.

Blackmun, Barbara W. "Reading a Royal Alter Tusk." The Art of power, the power of art : studies in Benin iconography. Ed. Paula Ben-Amos and Arnold Rubin. Los Angeles, CA: Museum of Cultural History, 1983.

Blackmun, Barbara W. "The elephant and its ivory in Benin." Elephant:The Animal and Its Ivory in African Culture. Ed. Doran H. Ross. Los Angeles, CA: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1992.

Chambers, Lee. "Crocodiles." The Art of power, the power of art : studies in Benin iconography. Ed. Paula Ben-Amos and Arnold Rubin. Los Angeles, CA: Museum of Cultural History, 1983.

Hodgkin, T. (ed.): Nigerian Perspective: An History Anthology. London, 1960

Nigeria, Benin people, Ruler’s Ancestor Altar, c. 1914.

Oba's Altar Tusk. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.