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

Female Figurine or Finial (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:

This ivory figurine most likely served as the finial of a wooden staff or scepter, and owned and used by a high-ranking official or a ritual specialist. The combination of its features is quite unusual. The kneeling attitude is rather common and typically denotes respect. However, the position of the hands is anatomically incorrect with the thumbs toward the face. The idea of the striking hand gesture may refer to mourning.

Object facts

• Title: Female Figurine or Finial
• Date: late 1800s-early 1900s
• Culture: Central Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (most likely), Cabinda, or Republic of the Congo, Kongo people
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Ivory and iron
• Dimensions: Overall: 11 x 4 x 4 cm (4 5/16 x 1 9/16 x 1 9/16 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 2010.446

A detail from the museum

The oversized hands with elongated fingers are positioned in an anatomically incorrect manner with the thumbs toward the face.

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.

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.