Museum Paper

The Hunting Horn in the Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection is a very interesting piece. This horn was made in the late 15^th-century by either the Bullom or Temne peoples of Sierra Leone (the Bullom were thought to have been the earliest inhabitants of Sierra Leone, and the Temne were thought to have followed in the 15^th century). It is ivory and metal. Historians easily determined that it was made for Europeans because if it had been made for Africans, the hole to blow into would not have been placed at the end of the horn; it would have been somewhere in the middle. This piece illustrates external relations that the Africans had at the time and for what purpose these relations existed.

The proposed history behind this ivory horn, at least the one that our tour guide told us, is that sometime late in the 15^th century someone representing the King of Portugal sailed down the west coast of Africa to Sierra Leone. He came to the unknown master carver, who historians refer to as the “Master of the Arms of Castile and Aragon,” and commissioned him to carve this horn. Westerners, namely Europeans, did this quite frequently because of the high value they put on African-carved ivory. Up to this part in the story, historians basically stay on the same page. However, it is at this point that the historians begin to differ on what happened next.

Some historians, including our tour guide, believe that the hunting horn was made for one reason and one reason only. They believe that the horn was made for the Portuguese king, Emmanuel I, to present to the Spanish king, Ferdinand V, at Ferdinand’s daughters’ weddings. Even for those who agree on this version, they still do not know which wedding was the scene for this gift. The reason is that Emmanuel married more than one of Ferdinand’s daughters. He married Isabella in 1497, and then after she died he married Maria in 1500. So, according to this theory, it was within a four-year span that Ferdinand received this special gift. The other theory is that the horn was given as a gift from Emmanuel to Ferdinand to mark the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas to mark peace between their two countries.

While evidence shows that Sierra Leone has been inhabited for thousands of years, the first documented experiences of relations with Europeans do not occur until the middle of the 15^th century. Alvaro Fernandez wrote of his experience in 1447, and Pedro Da Cintra did so in 1462. Even though the Portuguese were the first to visit this area of western Africa, their influence in the region had diminished because of other European powers’ growing interests in the region. What this means is that midway through this land’s external relations with its first European trade partner was when Emmanuel had this ivory horn made as a gift.

An interesting characteristic about this horn is how it was carved. It was commissioned to have Christian symbols carved into it (at the time, Portugal and Spain were both Catholic countries). While these desired symbols most certainly represent Christianity, they also most certainly have an African twist to them. There are two figures on the horn that suggest the Good Shepherd, which is a reference to Jesus Christ. This would seem normal except that each figure is shown holding a spear and the animal is not what would be expected, a lamb; it is an unidentifiable creature. The fact that the Portuguese were willing to let the artist paint what the king wanted with a Sapi twist merely shows how much respect the Portuguese had for Sapi artwork. They wanted the precious carved ivory so much that they were willing take what they could get. Sierra Leone’s external relations, at this time, were based on their ability to provide Westerners with what they wanted.