Male figure (probably 1800s): Art, History and Details

Male figure (probably 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Realized in a very distinctive style using the lost-wax method, this figure’s cultural origin and function is limited because it was removed from Nigeria during that country’s turbulent civil war of the late 1960s. Perhaps it was once part of an altar or shrine dedicated to a guardian or tutelary spirit. Connotations of prestige and wealth may explain why copper-alloy objects were diffused across vast territory and inherited over many generations.

Object facts

• Title: Male figure
• Date: probably 1800s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Benue River Valley, Unidentified maker
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Copper alloy
• Dimensions: height: 44.7 x 22.7 x 9.6 cm (17 5/8 x 8 15/16 x 3 3/4 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 2016.57

A detail from the museum

Figurative copper-alloy objects like this sculpture point to intense trade and the circulation of people, goods, and technologies in the Benue River Valley, resulting in a highly cosmopolitan society.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Brincard, Marie-Thérèse, and Evelyn Fischel. The Art of Metal in Africa: New York, N.Y.: African-American Institute, 1982.
• Phillips, Tom. Africa: The Art of a Continent. Munich: Prestel, 1995.
• Grunne, Bernard de. "A Missing Link?: Notes on an Early Proto-Jukun Seated Terracotta Figure". Tribal: the Magazine of Tribal Art. 10 (2) no. 39 (Autumn-Winter 2005): 130-131.

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.