Female Figurine
Unknown Artist
late 1800s–early 1900s
Medium
Ivory
Dimensions
12 × 2.5 × 4.5 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
African Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Accession Number
2010.449
About this artwork
This female figurine may be a fragment of a spoon or spatula, but is not confirmed. Iconography of the human image is common in the art of Kongo-speaking peoples, however, this object’s function or purpose is unknown. The position of the arms has been interpreted as that of a bound prisoner while the positioning of the head represents a broken neck or severed head, thus identifying as a sacrificial victim.