Cleveland Museum of Art
Figure
- Date
- 1800s
- Medium
- Terracotta
- Culture
- Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Akan-style artist
- Department
- African Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
A master female potter among the Asante created this clay sculpture to commemorate the departed. While not a naturalistic portrait, this figure depicts features associated with the dead person such as coiffure or facial marks. The rolls of flesh on the neck are a widespread artistic convention for beauty, prosperity, and well-being. After placing the memorial in a sacred forest clearing, family members invoked the spirit of the departed and asked it to accept the sculpture and facilitate communications with ancestors.
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
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