The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Memorial head (nsodie)

Memorial head (nsodie)

late 1600s-early 1700s

Did You Know?

The woman who sculpted this head did so without making a sketch, working from her memory of the subject.

Description

Before they died, Akan royal family members commissioned terracotta portraits, including heads like this one, from female artists. After royal burials, these idealized substitutes were placed in sacred groves outside the village where they were the focus of periodic libations, offerings, and prayers. The knobs on the head imitate a once popular male hairstyle having a tufted pattern.
  • by at least 1990
    (Arts Primitifs, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1990–
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Turner, Evan H. “Acquisitions: 1990.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 2 (February 1991): 44, no. 62, repr. p. 36. www.jstor.org
    Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Cleveland Museum of Art." African Arts 30, no. 1 (1997): 66-71, p .68.
    Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: Selected works of African Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: cat. 20, p. 70 – 71. Reproduced: cat. 20, p. 70 - 71
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 30-31
  • {{cite web|title=Memorial head (nsodie)|url=false|author=|year=late 1600s-early 1700s|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.22