Bust of a Dignitary with Ribbed Cap, Benin Court Style

Crowned busts and ornamented heads celebrate the splendour of courtly regalia: netted beaded caps, towering tiered crowns, coral collars and the ritual marks of rank.

Bronze has long been the language of power in West Africa. Cast by the lost-wax method — in which a model shaped in wax is encased in clay and replaced by molten metal — these works preserve with remarkable fidelity the faces, regalia and ceremonies of the courts that commissioned them.

The dignitary wears a close-fitting cap built from stacked, finely textured ridges, crowned by a small crest and finished at the back with an oval panel of cross-hatched beadwork.

The face, rendered with delicate striations, is calm and inward-looking. A broad beaded collar sits above a netted garment hung with paired square pendants, and one arm extends forward in a gesture of offering. The glossy dark surface bears flecks of verdigris and the marks of age.