The Brass Plaques of the Benin Palace

The Portuguese came to modern Nigerian Benin from 1472 to 1486, looking for an ancient kingdom that is socially and ceremonially complex, its art is relatively natural, and is politically distinguishable politically It was. European: Monarchy. More importantly, they discovered lots of pepper, cloth, ivory and slave-rich land and soon began to establish trade (Ben-Amos 35-6). Although "first contact" between Europeans and Africans often imagines European breakthroughs as a breakthrough confrontation that allows Europeans to manipulate and enforce free and profitably profitable Africans, This is ready to misjudge the elasticity,

From the end of the 14th century to the end of the 20th century, the Kingdom of Benin dominated the trade with Europeans on the coast of Nigeria. When a Portuguese merchant arrived in Benin in the 14th century, they brought a brass bracelet called Manila in exchange for pepper, ivory and slaves. Benin's artists have transformed this brass instrument of Europe into a decorative plate for decorating the palace of the Oba. When these patches first appeared in Europe in the late 1890s they shocked the art critic who could not believe that these technically finished sculptures were created by African artists I gave it.

Many of the brass plaques from the royal palace represent images of Portuguese men who seems to have been made because they dressed their clothes from the 16th century to the 17th century. Benin did not offer gold, but they used pepper, ivory, leopard skin and people as slaves to other parts of Africa and Brazilian Brazilian colonies. Many of these people were caught in war, people in Benin expeded enemies in these wars and made them part of the kingdom, or a conquered local chief sent them as homage to the king It was.

When Britain tried to expand their trade in the 19th century, people in Benin killed their envoys. Thus, in 1897 the British destroyed his palace and sent armed expeditions to capture the king of Benin to rob the sculptures and royalty, including trees, ivory, and in particular brass. Some of them came from the royal altar of the king's ancestors, but there were plenty of cast brass plaques used to decorate the pillars of the palace tree. These are left in the warehouse of the palace, part of the palace is under construction. Later, most of them were probably made between 1550 and 1650. The characters and scenes they exhibited were very diverse, so at that time they painted the courtroom and the kingdom vividly.