The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Painted wood figure, arms hanging by their sides with an oval face with a beak-like nose topped with a red-brown cylinder from which hang red-brown fibers in dense tufts on either side. The lanky, red-brown and dark-brown body wears only a discolored, brown loincloth. The figure's eyes angle inwards, irises painted yellow with worn white and yellow paint covering their face in patterns.

Ancestral Figure

1800s

Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, Sepik River region, 19th century

painted wood with fiber and tapa cloth
Overall: 105.4 x 12.2 x 12.8 cm (41 1/2 x 4 13/16 x 5 1/16 in.)
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Munro 1971.150
Location: Not on view

Description

In the Sepik River region, village social and ceremonial life centers on the men's house. Ritual objects such as slit gongs, orators' stools, and flutes are stored there; the most sacred objects are kept hidden from women and children. Carved wooden figures, which probably represent ancestors, were preserved in the men's houses.
  • Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972).
  • {{cite web|title=Ancestral Figure|url=false|author=|year=1800s|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1971.150