Figure (1800s): Art, History and Details
Figure at the Cleveland Museum of Art: 1800s, Terracotta. Explore the work's context, creator attribution and collection history.
Figure (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.
The work and its context
The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:
A master female potter among the Asante created this clay sculpture to commemorate the departed. While not a naturalistic portrait, this figure depicts features associated with the dead person such as coiffure or facial marks. The rolls of flesh on the neck are a widespread artistic convention for beauty, prosperity, and well-being. After placing the memorial in a sacred forest clearing, family members invoked the spirit of the departed and asked it to accept the sculpture and facilitate communications with ancestors.
Object facts
- Title: Figure
- Date: 1800s
- Culture: Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Akan-style artist
- Type: Sculpture
- Technique: Terracotta
- Dimensions: Overall: 12.7 cm (5 in.)
- Collection: African Art
- Department: African Art
- Accession number: 1974.205
Collection credit
Gift of Katherine C. White
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.
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