Figure: Horn Player. Culture: Edo peoples. Dimensions: H. 24 13/16 x W. 11 9/16 x D. 6 3/4 in. (63 x 29.4 x 17.2 cm). Date: 1550-1680.In the art of Benin, works in bronze can be commissioned only by the Oba, or ruler, or by others with his permission. According to oral traditions, the technique of lost-wax bronze casting was brought to Benin around the end of the fourteenth century from Ife, the ancient kingdom to the north noted for its exquisite cast-bronze commemorative heads. Prior to that time, Benin craftsmen produced hammered and incised, but not cast, bronze ornaments.Once the technique of lost-wax casting was mastered by the craftsmen of Benin, bronze heads and figures began to appear on the Oba's shrines. This figure of a court musician playing a side-blown trumpet attests to the technical virtuosity of the Benin bronze-casters. The figure's elaborately textured garment depicts the hide of a leopard, an animal associated with the power of the Oba. Similarly, the strands of