Head of an oba

This is a bronze head-portrait of Nigerian king. This head originally stood on an altar in the royal palace in Benin City to commemorate a deceased king (oba). Although such heads were associated with specific rulers, none of them strives to be a mimetic likeness but instead conveys the sense that enlightened leadership endured across generations. The head straddles dead and memorialized, specific and idealized, person, ancestor, thus asking us to reconsider what portraits are and what they represent.