Ife and Benin
West African bronze casters produce naturalistic portraiture of extraordinary quality.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 300 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
The Yoruba city of Ife produces, from around 1200, life-size heads in copper alloy and terracotta of such naturalism that early European scholars refused to believe they were African. Benin follows with brass plaques recording court history and casting technique of the highest order. Both are made by lost-wax casting. Thousands of Benin objects were looted by a British punitive expedition in 1897 and are still being negotiated over.