Female Figurine (late 1800s-early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Female Figurine (late 1800s-early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Beembe figurines generally have greatly detailed anatomical and decorative features. The scarification among Beembe men and women communicated their ideas about local beauty and ethnic belonging. These figures are charged with an ancestor’s spirit through a mixture of resin and human-derived ingredients—taken from the corpse of the person they possibly portray—into a small cavity near the rectum.

Object facts

• Title: Female Figurine
• Date: late 1800s-early 1900s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Republic of the Congo, Beembe-style maker
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Wood, possibly ceramic, and copper alloy
• Dimensions: Overall: 17 x 5.8 x 4.2 cm (6 11/16 x 2 5/16 x 1 5/8 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 2010.429

A detail from the museum

The carvings in the figure’s abdomen reflect the custom of body scarification among the Beembe people.

Collection credit

René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Petridis, Constantine, et al. Fragments of the Invisible: The René and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art. Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2013, 25, 34.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.