A Benin Relief Panel with Acrobats

A Benin Relief Panel with Acrobats of the Amufi Ceremony.

The relief depicts two acrobats participating in the Amufi Ceremony, one of the many guild rituals in Benin. As members of the Amufi guild, they are responsible for capturing fish eagles for the Oba’s sacrificial rites during the Ugie Festival and perform other ritual acts, including climbing trees. Tradition attributes to these guild members a special spiritual power, as they can reach the highest treetops—a feat beyond ordinary people.

For the ritual, they secretly prepare a tall tree with ropes at night. On the following day, during the ceremony, they reach the highest branch, secure the rope around themselves, and swing through the air in wide arcs with arms and legs outstretched. Their rattle-adorned arms move like wings. At the top of the relief, three large birds—presumably fish eagles—sit as a symbolic reference to the ritual.

The panel is notable for its rare combination of dynamic human movement and naturalistic representation of the environment, a feature uncommon in Benin reliefs. A stylistic parallel exists only in the relief depicting a leopard hunt, which also shows figures in unusually active poses and trees with carefully modeled leaves. Scholars therefore attribute both works to a single artist, whom Fagg calls the “Master of the Leopard Hunt.” Due to his distinctive style, he is regarded as one of Benin’s most important artists and among the few whose works can be confidently attributed—an otherwise challenging task given the minimal stylistic variation over centuries.

Reference:
Barbara Blackmun, in: Barbara Plankensteiner (ed.), Benin. Kings and Rituals. Court Art from Nigeria, Vienna 2007, pp. 334–335.

TL Analysis Kotalla

Dimension: 47 cm / 38 cm
Weight: 9,1 kg