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Additional Views

Oct 26, 2009

May 8, 2009

Oct 26, 2009

Head

thermoluminescence date 20–620 CE

Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Nok-culture style region, unknown maker

Terracotta

Overall: 38.2 x 20 cm (15 1/16 x 7 7/8 in.)

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1995.21

Location

108A Sub-Saharan

Did you know?

This complete head’s bold modeling, deliberate asymmetry, and sensitive expression make it one of the finest known examples of Nok sculpture.

Description

This Nok terracotta is an exceptionally well-preserved large head that was probably once part of a life-size seated figure, posed with knees drawn up and chin resting on the forearm. Whether or not such heads were meant to be an early form of portraiture is unknown. There is also the possibility that these heads were to honor ancestors, and in part to communicate with the spirit world of the deceased.

Provenance

?-1995

(Emile Deletaille Antiquaire, Brussels, Belgium, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) ¹

1995

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1995

Provenance Footnotes

¹Emile Deletaille owned this piece by at least 1994. See correspondence 1994-95 between him and Margaret Young-Sánchez; transit paperwork 11-30-94 in curatorial file.

Citations

Young-Sánchez, Margaret. “An Enigmatic Terracotta.” In The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 36, no. 2 (February 1996): 9. p. 9 archive.org

Wilkins, David G., Bernard Schultz, and Katheryn M. Linduff. Art Past, Art Present. 3rd ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 1997, 42, fig. 2-7. p. 42, fig. 2-7

Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Cleveland Museum of Art." In African Arts 30, no. 1 (Winter 1997): 69. p. 69

Wilkins, David G., Bernard Schultz, and Katheryn M. Linduff. Art Past, Art Present. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001, 28, fig. 2-7. p. 28, fig. 2-7

Donley, Gregory M., "A New Face for African Art", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 42 no. 04, April 2002 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6-7 archive.org

Petridis, Constantine. South of the Sahara: Selected Works of African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003, 87, color plate 28. p. 87, color plate 28

Wilkins David G, et al. Art Past, Art Present. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005, 28, fig. 2-7. p. 42, fig. 2-7

Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 32

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Head|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.21|year=thermoluminescence date 20–620 CE|access-date=02 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Images

Head

Head

Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Nok-culture style region, unknown maker

Location

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Description

Provenance Footnotes

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