1.3.02026-09-11relief, platta, AmaRådata1239321objektStatens museer för världskultur - Etnografiska museetSMVK-EMFöremålhttp://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/objekt/12393211973.34.0004, 1957.10, 63Bronsplatta från Benin. (generalkatalogen)Bronze plaque representing a musician When the Portuguese first made contact with the power of Benin in 1472, and first visited the great city itself in about 1485, they found flourishing there an art of bronzecasting, derived from an older tradition at Ife in Yorubaland, wich was of great beaty and sensitivity. Bronze was in short supply and treated as precious metal, but the portugese were soon able to remedy that, importing enough bronze in the sixteenth century to enable the Oba to clothe the pillars of his most impressive courtyard in bronze reliefs- the rectangular form of which seems to have been the only major portuguese contribution to the art. Enough plaques survice-about 1000-to have fitted out about 45 pillars. At this point we may regard the Early Period as giving place to the Middle or Classical Period, wich lasted for a century or more until about 1650. The art had reched a plateau of "acceptance"-the criterion of classicism-which is our chief guide in identifying the other works of the period. This fine example of a single-figure plaque shows a chief (as we know from his beaded collar) playing on a small calabash rattle covered in beaded net, his right middle finger tucked into the central hole. Action, in one of the royal ceremonies, is here representented in a rather static manner. Yet the essential dignity of all works of the middle Period is the dominant effect wich the bronze projects from the sixteenth century into our own day. By William Fagg. The Georg von Békésy Collection. Page 170-171., Deposition från Nobelstiftelsen 1973, Föremålet var på Karolinska Institutet 1976 - 1990. Därefter har det befunnits sig på Nobel Forum., 1976 skedde ett utlån till Karolinska Institutet via Östasiatiska museet. Kontaktperson var då prof. Sune Bergström., Utlån Karolinska, kolla. Ej retur då placering saknas. (Mia Broné), The Georg von Békésy Collection. Edited by Jan Wirgin, Malmö, 1974., Hicks, Dan (2020). The Brutish Museums. The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution. London: Pluto Press., Pitt-Rivers, A. H. L. F. (1900). Antique Works of Art from Benin: Collected by Lieutenant-General Pitt Rivers. Printed privately., Nigeria, https://digitalbenin.org/catalogue/29_1973340004, Registered in 1973 at the Museum of Ethnography as a deposition from the Nobel Foundation (owner) via Nationalmuseum, although the object was returned into the care of the Nobel Foundation in 1976. The object was at Karolinska Institutet 1976-1990, and since 1990 at Nobel Forum. The relief plaque 1973.34.0004 in the Nobel Foundation collection is very likely identical with the plaque depicted on Plate 3:11-12 (Pitt-Rivers 1900) in the Pitt-Rivers Collection, i.e. his second, private collection at Farnham (see Hicks 2020:169-170; 172-173; appendix 4, p. 247). As is true for most of his art collection, it is plausible that von Békésy acquired the plaque in the late 1950s from a North American antiques dealer.InsamladBékésy, Georg vonFörvärvadNobelstiftelsen [Ägare], Pitt-Rivers, AugustusBrukadEdo (folk)UrsprungAfrika, Nigeria, Edo state, Benin CityÄgsNobelstiftelsenimage/jpeghttps://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-em/web/image/tn/2104389/image.jpghttps://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-em/web/image/zoom/2104388/image.jpghttp://kulturarvsdata.se/resurser/License#byGabrielsson, BoStatens museer för världskulturhttp://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/samling/1040882http://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/fotografi/2104402http://libris.kb.se/bib/1bp2m350zhr0n9c5http://libris.kb.se/bib/s52dlt37qln2m71chttp://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/name/1040906http://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/name/1441757http://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/name/3683735http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1287326https://digitalbenin.org/catalogue/29_1973340004http://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/objekt/html/1239321http://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/objekt/xml/1239321http://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/objekt/rdf/12393215.6145,6.3176