Shrine Figure (misi or mishi) (late 1800s-early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Shrine Figure (misi or mishi) (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:

The scale and attributes of this figure suggest it represents an important male ancestor. It wears a e'umbu skullcap like members of the politically and ritually powerful Bwami association. The slender nose that descends into a sharp point was an admired form called membe wa atondo. This figure was used in an ancestral cult dedicated to the founders of small political groupings. Such figures were usually kept in the same shrine with several stylistically related male and female carvings representing ancestors. At times of crisis, the shrine's custodian spent the night near the images, bringing offerings to the ancestors in exchange for their support.

Object facts

• Title: Shrine Figure (misi or mishi)
• Date: late 1800s-early 1900s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, pre-Bembe style or Boyo-style maker
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Wood and cotton
• Dimensions: Overall: 48.6 x 15.6 x 17.2 cm (19 1/8 x 6 1/8 x 6 3/4 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1969.10

A detail from the museum

Even when placed in the same shrine, ancestor sculptures like these were often carved in different styles.

Collection credit

Gift of Katherine C. White

Further reading listed by the museum

• Fagg, William, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 1968. African Tribal Images; the Katherine White Reswick Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 1, cat. 131.
• Wixom, William D. "African Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art." African Arts 10, no. 3 (1977): 16-25, 88, fig. 10.
• Drewal, Henry John. African Art: A Brief Guide to the Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1989, fig.7.

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.