A fragmentary Bronze plate

A fragmentary Bronze plate, called Ama, Nigeria, depiction a leopard, surounded by four heads of portugues with lang hairs and beards, in three dimensiona relief-manner. Three-dimensional bronze plates are among the most difficult casting tasks for Benin casters, as they require much more craftsmanship than the far more common bas-reliefs. This plate is extremly thinwalled, which is probably the reason for the poor preservation and the numerous breakthroughs.

Ama is a pictorial combination of figures that has a historical explanation or is a visual representation of a historical event. Ama had a mnemonic purpose, aiding one to recall the events or persons represented in the artwork. Benin oral traditions are popularly transmitted in the form of commemorative festivals, stories, plays, songs, poems, riddles, proverbs and other forms of oral literature. Ben-Amos (1980:28) observed the existence of over nine hundred known plaques which provided a testimony to court life at the time of Ọba Esigie, considered ‘a sort of pictorial record of events in Benin history, an aid to memorizing oral traditions’. Source: Digital Benin.

Height: 48 cm
Length: 48 cm
Weight: 30 cm