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Figurine
late 1800s-early 1900s
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
One of seven <em>minkisi</em> figures previously in the René and Odette Delenne collection, this object contained medicines in which an ancestral spirit was believed to reside. This figure is one of the two tallest in the collection. Feathers of a bird of prey adorn its head, with two small guns pointing upward and a third hanging down. It had belonged to “the sorcerer of Louboulou.”
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Details
- Title: Figurine
- Date Created: late 1800s-early 1900s
- Physical Dimensions: Overall: 34 x 9.5 x 25 cm (13 3/8 x 3 3/4 x 9 13/16 in.)
- Provenance: (Unidentified art dealer, Nice, FR, 1961, sold to René and Odette Delenne), René [1901-1998] and Odette Delenne [1925-2012], Brussels, BE, 2010, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 2010
- Type: Sculpture
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.439
- Medium: Wood, metalized glass, organic materials (including resin), feathers, plant fibers, iron, and copper alloy
- Fun Fact: This is one of two tallest in the collection of spiritual figurines loaded with gunpowder to shoot at witches: <em>nduda</em>, or “night guns.”
- Department: African Art
- Culture: Central Africa, Republic of the Congo, Kongo people
- Credit Line: René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
- Collection: African Art
- Accession Number: 2010.439
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