MILITARY ART

Edo, Benin City, Nigeria, 16th century

Oba Ovonramwen (who reigned from 1888-1897)

gave this sculpture to John Henry Swainson, a Liverpool trader, when he visited Benin with a British diplomatic expedition in 1892.

Such figures were placed on royal ancestral altars and may have commemorated the military power of a particular Oba.
Purchased with the assistance of The National Art Collections Fund.