Male Figure (Nkisi) (late 1800s-early 1900s): Art, History and Details

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 often associated with the word spirit, as these figures are believed to host a variety ancestral spirits. With an intact mirror-covered stomach cavity, this figure was not decommissioned before sale or disposal, deeming its particular powers sustained. The cloth knots and carvings suggest that it was used to bind agreements or oaths, and to reconcile social and cosmological contradictions.

Object facts

• Title: Male Figure (Nkisi)
• Date: late 1800s-early 1900s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo (most likely), Cabinda, or Republic of the Congo, probably Yombe-style maker
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Wood, organic material (including resin), metalized glass, and cloth
• Dimensions: Overall: 17 x 5.3 x 7 cm (6 11/16 x 2 1/16 x 2 3/4 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 2010.434

A detail from the museum

The medicinal substances remain intact in this particular figure, which is rare, as most were decommissioned before museum acquisition.

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, 50.

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.