Commemorative head of an Ọba
Edo peoples, Benin kingdom · brass · early 16th c.
A commemorative brass head of an Ọba, cast by the royal guild of brass-casters of Benin City. Several comparable heads are held across European and African collections; their provenance is under active review through the Benin Dialogue Group.
Descent of Commemorative head of an Ọba
Annotations from the network
Footnote-style observations from other contributors, folded into the layer's margins. Visible, but quiet.
- 01
Note how the Prussian blue sits in the wave's trough versus its crest — later Hokusai impressions stabilize this gradient, but early pulls like this one still feel like the pigment is being tested against the page.
- 02
The cover of Debussy's 1905 Durand edition of La Mer reproduces this print at the composer's request. A cross-medium lineage worth branching into its own layer.
- 03
Cross-impression XRF of this series (see descendant analysis) supports distinct pulls over the run — not a single uniform batch, but a recarved block drifting as it wore.