The cock is an important animal in the religion of Benin, treated as a worthy animal sacrifice to deities such as Olokun, a spirit of wealth and of the sea....
The cock is an important animal in the religion of Benin, treated as a worthy animal sacrifice to deities such as Olokun, a spirit of wealth and of the sea. These statues of male chickens were typically cast using a lost wax process, modelled with comb, tail and spurs, and incised patterns representing feathers, mounted on a large square base which was often decorated with a guilloche pattern, as in this case. They may have been ceremonial objects, displayed on an ancestral altar commemorating an Iyoba of Benin (a queen mother), an unusual example of a male animal being used to commemorate a woman, attributable to the traditional power and privileges of the queen mother. The Oba's senior wife, and thus often the mother of a future king, was given honorific title "Eson, Ogoro Madagba" ("the cock that crows at the head of the harem").
The kingdom of Benin produced some of the finest artists and craftsmen in the history of the African continent. Yet this heritage was scarcely recognised until the British punitive expedition of 1897, which destroyed and looted the ancient city compounds and in so doing brought the achievements of Benin to the world’s attention. The foundation of the Benin peoples was contemporary with the European late mediaeval period, when the kingdom of Benin was founded by a descendent of an Ife king in c. 1180 CE. In the 15th and 16th centuries the power of the empire stretched across most of West Africa, and those areas not under their control were indirectly influenced by the effect of their trade networks and artistic achievements. Until the late 19th century, the Benin centres were a ruling power in Nigeria, dominating trade routes and amassing enormous wealth as the military and economic leaders of their ancient empire.
Benin art was designed to venerate the achievements and/or memory of the Obas, the divine rulers of the Benin polities. Benin work in bronze and copper, ironworking and sculpting in a range of materials that particularly included ivory was extremely refined and effective; indeed, smelting, forging and cire perdue (lost wax) metalworking methods exceeded any seen in Europe until the 19th century. The palace walls were decorated with ornate metal plaques, while dead Obas were honoured by erecting commemorative altars, framed by elephant tusks mounted in brass heads, and further decorated with brass leopards, spears, statues, tableaux (depicting the Oba and his followers) and rattle-staffs (ukhurhe). Perhaps the most unusual items to grace the kingly altars were the bells, which were rung in order to awaken the spirits.
This beautiful cockerel testifies to the artistic refinement of the artisans of Benin during the early 20th century, a period of 'renaissance' in the art of Benin after the British punitive expedition of 1897. In the early 20th century, under the reign of the Oba Eweka II the Benin Arts and Crafts School was established, providing a new focal point for the transmission of the cultural heritage of the kingdom to new generations and ensuring the survival of the rich artistic traditions of Benin.