Portuguese Soldier Bronze Statute | The Edo Heritage

A well executed bronze statuette of a European soldier at the time of the first arrival of the Portuguese in the pose of firing off his flint lock gun. 

The details are well carried out, but in many points the touch of the native artist makes itself visible, thus we have the shapeless contour of the right arm and the little fusils which bedeck the man's thighs a species of decoration, namely the dabbing of a miniature figure on to a large one, so characteristic of savage art. 

The sword or knife carried by this military man, like the rest of the figure has every indication of having been copied from a European model and the guard much resembling a Toledo rapier of the middle of the seventeenth century. - Ling Roth {Great Benin,iIt’s custom and horror}