Male Figure (Nkisi) (late 1800s-early 1900s): Art, History and Details
Male Figure (Nkisi) at the Cleveland Museum of Art: late 1800s-early 1900s, Wood, cloth, resin, organic material, feathers, natural fibers, antelope horn, seashells (including cowrie shells), glass beads, metalized glass, and plant fiber. E
Male Figure (Nkisi) (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:
Nkisi is an object that is believed to host an ancestral spirit. Unusual among these figures, this nkisi figure is missing its nduda, “night guns.” These guns would be filled with gunpowder functioning as defense against witches or misfortune. Unless its guns were lost during the course of its life history, this nkisi may instead be an example of a more general type called mpanzu, whose functions included protection.
Object facts
- Title: Male Figure (Nkisi)
- Date: late 1800s-early 1900s
- Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cabinda, or Republic of the Congo, probably Vili-style maker
- Type: Sculpture
- Technique: Wood, cloth, resin, organic material, feathers, natural fibers, antelope horn, seashells (including cowrie shells), glass beads, metalized glass, and plant fiber
- Dimensions: Overall: 42 x 11.8 x 23 cm (16 9/16 x 4 5/8 x 9 1/16 in.)
- Collection: African Art
- Department: African Art
- Accession number: 2010.433
A detail from the museum
Different from other figures functioning as defense against witches or misfortune, its “night guns,” or nduda, are missing.
Collection credit
René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Further reading listed by the museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 53 no. 05, September/October 2013
- 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, 52-53.
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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