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Figure
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineFigure , 1800s. Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Akan-style artist. Terracotta; overall: 12.7 cm (5 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Katherine C. White, 1974.205
