Male Figure (mid- to late 1800s): Art, History and Details

Male Figure (mid- to late 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Hungaan figures of this size served as guardians of ritual shrines and functioned in rituals to promote fertility, guarantee well-being, and ensure longevity. The striking crested hairstyle imitates a real coiffure or a wig, indicative of status and prestige. The hands supporting the chin identify the figure as a chief who is immersed in thought and contemplation, pondering over his responsibilities.

Object facts

• Title: Male Figure
• Date: mid- to late 1800s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Hungaan-style maker
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Wood and colorant
• Dimensions: Overall: 68 cm (26 3/4 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 2003.36

A detail from the museum

The red powdery surface of this figure mimics a red body adornment that mixed ground camwood with palm oil.

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Utotombo: l'art d'Afrique noire dans les collections privées belges, exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts. Brussels: Société des Expositions, 1988, cat. 171.
• Cornet, Joseph-Aurélien. Zaïre: peuples/art/culture. Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1989, 384.
• Petridis, Constantine. "A New Installation for African Art in Cleveland." Tribal v.9 no. 3, i. 36 (Autumn/Winter 2004): 68-73

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.