Female attendant of the Queen mother "Iyoba"
Description
ivory, kneeling, in both hands holding a gong, pierced pupils with black wood inlay, which can be found on the forehead (scarifications) as well (partly missing), dam., missing parts (right eye and hand), traces of old age;
a quite similar figure can be found in the Völkerkundemusuem in Vienna, published at A. Duchateau, Expokat. Brussels, 1990, p. 152, cat. 81. (Compare Yale Archive: 0088493).
The figure wears a special high woven hairstyle called “eme”, a status symbol for her outstanding role at the court. Neck, wrists and ankles are decorated with coral beads “ika”. The figure is naked, beside a string of beads around her waist. The torso is cut with the traditional scarification of Benin women.
Carved ivory figures of attendants form the Queen Mothers court, belong to the few free-standing sculptures of non-royal female persons in the inventory of the courtly art of Benin. These figures would have stood in pairs on a shrine of the “Iyoba”. They represent the group of those young girls who traditionally served the corporal mother of the “Oba”.