Close-up of Benin brass
"We set fire to the Queen Mother's house and those of several chiefs; the
fire spread uncontrollably and destroyed a large part of the city. The royal
palace was also burnt, although we claimed this was accidental. The royal palace
of Benin was one of the great cultural complexes of Africa, a continent
that, according to Victorians, wasn't supposed to have anything like it. It was a
court as big as a European town.
"It is divided into many palaces, houses, and apartments of the courtiers,"
reads Olfert Dapper's enthusiastic 1668 account, "and comprises beautiful
and long square galleries... resting on wooden pillars, from top to bottom
covered with cast copper, on which are engraved the pictures of their war
exploits and battles... Every roof is decorated with a small turret ending in a
point, on which birds are standing, birds cast in copper with outspread wings."
Close-up of Benin brass
"We set fire to the Queen Mother's house and those of several chiefs; the
fire spread uncontrollably and destroyed a large part of the city. The royal
palace was also burnt, although we claimed this was accidental. The royal palace
of Benin was one of the great cultural complexes of Africa, a continent
that, according to Victorians, wasn't supposed to have anything like it. It was a
court as big as a European town.
"It is divided into many palaces, houses, and apartments of the courtiers,"
reads Olfert Dapper's enthusiastic 1668 account, "and comprises beautiful
and long square galleries... resting on wooden pillars, from top to bottom
covered with cast copper, on which are engraved the pictures of their war
exploits and battles... Every roof is decorated with a small turret ending in a
point, on which birds are standing, birds cast in copper with outspread wings."