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"accession_number": "1990.22",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Memorial head (nsodie), late 1600s\u2013early 1700s. Ghana, Akan-style sculpture, unknown female ceramicist. Terracotta; overall: 19.1 x 13.6 x 15.5 cm (7 1/2 x 5 3/8 x 6 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund, 1990.22",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Memorial head (nsodie)",
"creation_date": "late 1600s\u2013early 1700s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1675,
"creation_date_latest": 1725,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Ghana, Akan-style sculpture, unknown female ceramicist"
],
"technique": "Terracotta",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 19.1 x 13.6 x 15.5 cm (7 1/2 x 5 3/8 x 6 1/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.191,
"width": 0.136,
"depth": 0.155
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 663599,
"title": "From the Earth through Her Hands: African Ceramics",
"description": "From the Earth through Her Hands: African Ceramics. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 21, 2024-September 21, 2025).",
"opening_date": "2024-09-21T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Arts Primitifs, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "by at least 1990",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1990\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
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"did_you_know": "The woman who sculpted this head did so without making a sketch, working from her memory of the subject.",
"description": "This is an idealized portrait of an Akan royal. The Akan states formed in West Africa around the 1400s. Akan royal family members commissioned terracotta portraits like this from female artists during someone\u2019s life. Following their death and burial, the family placed these sculptures in a sacred grove. The woman who sculpted this head over 300 years ago worked from memory, without sketches. The resulting sculpture combined idealized physical qualities of elite figures with individual details. The hairstyle and skin color of this portrait reflect its subject\u2019s individuality. In contrast, his calm expression reflects the desired \u201ccool composure\u201d of elites.",
"external_resources": {
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"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60740206"
],
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"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1990.22-memorial-head-nsodie"
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"citations": [
{
"citation": "Turner, Evan H. \u201cAcquisitions: 1990.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 2 (February 1991): 44, no. 62, repr. p. 36.",
"page_number": "",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/i25161312"
},
{
"citation": "Young-S\u00e1nchez, Margaret. \"The Cleveland Museum of Art.\" African Arts 30, no. 1 (1997): 66-71, p .68.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: Selected works of African Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: cat. 20, p. 70 \u2013 71.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. 20, p. 70 - 71",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 30-31",
"url": ""
}
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"creditline": "Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund",
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"date_text": "late 1600s\u2013early 1700s",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Head (Mma)",
"Memorial Figure (mma)"
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"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:09:52.032000"
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