Focus on this artwork and explain the Description.
The figures, in high relief form a circle around the shaft of the elephant tusk, supporting the bowl at top used to hold the salt. The amount and type of decoration indicates that this piece was created in a Benin court. Two of the four male figures are from clearly of a higher rank, probably from a higher class.  They are more elaborately carved and shown frontally, while the other two have less ornament and are shown in profile. The men on the front and on the back are dressed with elaborate clothes with a cross necklace, showing they are European Christians. In addition they are wearing hats and holding spears in their left hand.
The style used to carve the ivory piece may be intended to be somewhat grotesque. In Afro-Portuguese ivories there are three African elements that are fundamental to call a piece African art: a focus on the human figure, an enunciation of the parts and a preference for pure geometric forms. Individuals are presented as the main subject in African art usually depicting an important figure like royalty or a deity, this is shown in the ivory salt cellar and other Benin Bronzes. The faces of each man are bigger with their long beards and deep eyes than their body while keeping their proportions in check. The geometry of the pattern of the men's clothing, the socket of the spear is another example where this geometry is repeated.
cross necklace African art salt cellar Portuguese relief Christians spear left ivory Benin Bronzes Christian