id: 168732 accession number: 2010.438 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.438 updated: 2023-03-22 03:04:44.093000 Figurine, late 1800s-early 1900s. Central Africa, Republic of the Congo, Kongo people. Wood, organic materials (including resin), probably kaolin, and metalized glass; overall: 17 x 7 x 6.5 cm (6 11/16 x 2 3/4 x 2 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2010.438 title: Figurine title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: late 1800s-early 1900s creation date earliest: 1880 creation date latest: 1920 current location: creditline: René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund copyright: --- culture: Central Africa, Republic of the Congo, Kongo people technique: Wood, organic materials (including resin), probably kaolin, and metalized glass department: African Art collection: African Art type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 17 x 7 x 6.5 cm (6 11/16 x 2 3/4 x 2 9/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Fragments of the Invisible: The Rene and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture opening date: 2013-10-27T00:00:00 Fragments of the Invisible: The Rene and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 27, 2013-February 9, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * --- PROVENANCE (Unidentified art dealer, Nice, FR, 1961, sold to René and Odette Delenne) date: ?-1961 footnotes: citations: René [1901-1998] and Odette Delenne [1925-2012], Brussels, BE, 2010, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1961-2010 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 2010 date: 2010 footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: This is the only figure in a group of seven found in a French antique shop adopting a threatening pose. digital description: This figure is of the nduda type, characterized by the attached "guns" loaded with gunpowder and used to shoot witches. It is the only figure that adopts the threatening pose: the right hand raised, holding a spear or knife, and the left hand resting on the hip. Two guns protrude horizontally on both sides of the cylindrical medicine pack on the belly, covered with a round piece of mirror. wall description: The Delenne’s stumbled upon this group of seven anthropomorphic figurines (2010.437–43) in an antiques shop in Nice during a holiday in the south of France in 1961. The carvings carry paperboard labels with inscriptions in French that indicate their ethnic and geographic provenance as well as some other details. Stemming from the Kongo region in West Central Africa, these seven sculptures feature a variety of gestures and poses, the use of mirror or glass for the eyes, and a red-white-black color scheme. They belong to the broad category of minkisi (singular nkisi), containers for medicines in which an ancestral spirit was believed to reside. Two of the group are minkisi of the nduda type, characterized by the attached "guns" loaded with gunpowder and used to shoot witches.

Two guns protrude horizontally on both sides of the cylindrical medicine pack on the belly, covered with a round piece of mirror. White clay almost completely covers the figure, referring to the realm of the ancestors. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS 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, 54-58. page number: Mentioned: pp. 54, 56, 113: reproduced: pp. 58-60, cat. 16 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2010.438/2010.438_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2010.438/2010.438_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2010.438/2010.438_full.tif