This is just one of the many beautiful Benin bronze figures included in the Metropolitan Museum’s “Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas” exhibits.
“Oba” was the term used for King in Benin, West Africa (now part of Nigeria). I am so grateful that some of this former kingdom’s art has been preserved.
Art can be such a history lesson sometimes. So often it represents what is most important to a people during specific periods of their time.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC
*Head of an Oba, 16th century (ca. 1550) Nigeria; Edo, Court of Benin (Brass)