Power figure (nkisi)
1880–1920
- Medium
- Wood, metalized glass, organic materials (including resin), feathers, plant fibers, iron, and copper alloy
- Dimensions
- Overall: 34 x 9.5 x 25 cm (13 3/8 x 3 3/4 x 9 13/16 in.)
- Genre
- Sculpture
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Styles
Tags
Africa, Central Africa, Republic of the Congo, Kongo-style maker
About
One of seven minkisi 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.”