Hip Mask Representing An Iyoba Essay

The exquisiteness of the material and the sophistication of the carving orient that it was created by the exclusive guild of royal ivory carvers for the world power. This exquisite temporary hookup is made out of ivory, iron and cooper. This effectuate in addition contains pieces of inlaid metallic element and elaborate coral carvings. The piece dimensions be as followed H. 9 3/8 x W. 5 x D. 3 1/4 in. (23. 8 x 12. 7 x 8. 3 cm). The secrete is a sensitive human idealized portrait, depicting its subject with softly sculpted features.This piece is framed with an elegant tiara-like coiffure and openwork collar. The pupils were inlaid with iron metal, the frontal bone has carved scarification marks and also she is wearing bands of coral beads on a lower floor the chin. In the necklace you can see miniature motifs that represent heads of the Portuguese soldiers render with beards and flowing hair. In the crown tiara-like coiffure are carved to a greater extent Portuguese heads al ternated with figures of stylized mudfish, which symbolizes Olokun, the Lord of the large(p) Waters.You can see that whatsoever of the necklace portion is dam bestride or missing and this could be due to the age and fragility of the coral. This piece is from early African art also cognize as Queen Mother Pendant Mask Iyoba. Today, you can grow this piece at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Although images of women are really rare this piece has come to symbolize the legacy of a dynasty that continues to the present day. In many of the African cultures the head is a very important, powerful and symbolic piece.The head was consider to be the symbolic circle around of a persons intelligence, wisdom, and ability to succeed in this valet de chambre and/or to be a tool to be able to fall out with spiritual forces in the ancestral world. In Art of History, published in 2011, both Professor Marilyn Stokstad and Michael W. Cothren claim that one of the honorifics used for the king is the Great Head. The head leads the body as the king leads the people. All of the history heads include representation of coral-beaded caps, necklaces and royal costume.Coral, enclosing the head and displayed on the body, is so far the ultimate symbol of the obas power and authority. In an article name Iyoba Idia The Hidden Oba Of Benin published in 2006, issue 9 of Jenda A ledger Of Culture And African Women Studies Nkiru Nzegwu wrote Iron and copper inserts were engraft in these cavities in the original model and formed part of the decoration. Some have claimed that these cavities were receptacles for embedded magical potions, and there is a historical ex programation for them.The striations were the result of incisions a local doctor-diviner made to disfigure Idia and render her unattractive to Oba Ozolua. As narrated by the present Oba Erediauwa, Idias parents did non wish her to become an Obas wife, and the prophesier they consulted advised that they mar her beauty to make her ugly to the Oba (Kaplan 1993, 59). The two incisions not only scarred her face but, to make assurance double sure, they also contained potent medicinal potions which the consulting physician-diviner had assured them would repel Oba Ozolua.The royal explanation is that the plan failed because the Oba sensed that something was wrong before he even saw Idia and right away neutralized the effects of the medicine. This is a pendant or pad mask that represents an iyoba (queen mother-the obas mother), the senior female member of the royal court. Its believed that this piece was produced in the early sixteenth century for the King or Oba Esigie, the king of Benin, who ruled from 1504 to 1550. This piece is to honor his mother, Idia.There are different versions of the innovation of this piece. The most common ones is that this was used a as belt ornament and it was worn at the obas hip. The Oba may have worn it at rites commemorating his mother, although today such pe ndants are worn at yearly ceremonies of spiritual renewal and purification. Esigie had the support of Ida and the Portuguese soldiers in the expansion of his kingdom. Ida is remembered for heave an army and using magical powers to help her son Esigie to defeat his enemies.