The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

Prestige Cap (mpu ngola)

Prestige Cap (mpu ngola)

late 1800s–early 1900s
(Angola)
Raffia palm fiber (Raphia ruffia or R. vinifera) and leopard claws
Overall: 42 x 19.3 x 19 cm (16 9/16 x 7 5/8 x 7 1/2 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1997.180
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The geometric motifs on this mpu cap—including diamonds and interlaces—are seen on Kongo, Vili, and Yombe works in other materials, including ivory and basketry.

Description

Zimpu (singular: mpu) are intricately knotted caps worn by men in parts of Central Africa. Ringed with leopard claws, this long cap (mpu ngola) once belonged to a high-status man; the fierce feline attachments alluded to his personal qualities, as both were seen as leaders in their domains. Its interlacing motifs appear across artforms made by the Kongo, Vili, and Yombe peoples. When new, caps draped over the head. However, raffia fibers stiffen over time. To support this now-delicate ngola, the CMA’s conservators mounted it upright. Known since at least 1607 in the former Loango Kingdom, as well as the adjacent Kongo Kingdom, such caps were once made by noblemen and worn into at least the 1980s.
  • 1891-1903
    Captain-Commandant Alfred Lens, Congo, AF, 1891-1903, field-collected.
    ?-1995
    Captain-Commandant Alfred Lens, Belgium, BE, 1995, by descent to his family.
    ?-1997
    (Jacques Hautelet, La Jolla, CA, 1997, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1997-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Petridis, Constantine. South of the Sahara: Selected Works of African Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art; Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press (distributor), 2003, 17, fig. 6. p. 17: fig. 6
    Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006, 118; color repr. p. 53, no. 46. p. 118; color repr. p. 53
    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. 40
  • Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
    Kongo: Power and Majesty. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (September 18, 2015-January 3, 2016).
    The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
  • {{cite web|title=Prestige Cap (mpu ngola)|url=false|author=|year=late 1800s–early 1900s|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.180