Head with Ornamented Cap and Cheek Markings, 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.

A domed cap edged with a rope-twist border covers the head, its punched ground stamped with rows of ring motifs and centred at the front by a triangle and lozenges.

Vertical marks of rank rise above the brows, and triple curving lines sweep across both cheeks. The full lips and large eyes are boldly modelled, and the neck is wrapped in heavy stacked rings. An opening at the crown recalls the ceremonial use of such heads on royal altars.