Memorial head (nsodie)
Unknown Artist
late 1600s–early 1700s
Medium
Terracotta
Dimensions
19.1 × 13.6 × 15.5 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
African Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund
Accession Number
1990.22
About this artwork
This is an idealized portrait of an Akan royal. The Akan states formed in West Africa around the 1400s. Akan royal family members commissioned terracotta portraits like this from female artists during someone’s life. Following their death and burial, the family placed these sculptures in a sacred grove. The woman who sculpted this head over 300 years ago worked from memory, without sketches. The resulting sculpture combined idealized physical qualities of elite figures with individual details. T...