Bronze figure of a
hornblower
Edo peoples, late 16th - early 17th century
AD
From Benin, Nigeria
This figure depicts one of the retinue of the
Oba (king) of Benin sounding a side-blown horn. It is typical of
those objects which might have been found on altars in the Benin
royal court of the late sixteenth / early seventeenth century which
were dedicated to the Oba's ancestors. Early European
accounts, such as Olfert Dapper's
Description de
l'Afrique (Amsterdam, 1686),
illustrate musicians of this type.
P. Girshick Ben-Amos, The art of Benin (London, The British Museum Press, 1995)