The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Figure

possibly early 1400s

Africa, West Africa, Sierra Leone, Sapi-style carver

soapstone
Overall: 23.8 x 11.2 x 12.5 cm (9 3/8 x 4 7/16 x 4 15/16 in.)
Gift of Lucile Munro in memory of her husband Thomas Munro, Curator of Education from 1931 to 1967 1976.29
Location: 108A African

Did You Know?

Sapi sculptors worked in stone—like in this sculpture—as well as ivory.

Description

The most varied group of soapstone figures and heads has been found in the homelands of the Kissi. Calling them pomda ("images of the dead"), the Kissi placed them in ancestral shrines, offering them the last seeds at sowing times and the first fruits of the harvest. However, the sculptures are believed to have been made centuries ago by the ancestors of the Kissi, the so-called Sapi people.
  • Heim, Paris
    Heim, Paris; Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Munro
  • Fagg, William Buller, International Exhibitions Foundation, National Gallery of Art (U.S.), William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Brooklyn Museum. 1970. African Sculpture; [Loan Exhibition] Circulated by the International Exhibitions Foundation, 1970. Washington: International Exhibitions Foundation, p. 17, no. 3.
    Munro, Thomas. Form and Style in the Arts: An Introduction to Aesthetic Morphology. Cleveland: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1970, fig. 63.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. 1976 Year in Review. Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland: OH, 1977, no. 2, cat. 36.
    Drewal, Henry John. African Art: A Brief Guide to the Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1989, fig. 2.
    Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. 1997. African Art : Permutations of Power. Gainesville, Fla: Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, fig. 32.
    Plass, Margaret. “Above the Salt.” Expedition Magazine 5, no. 3 (May, 1963): 39-41. www.penn.museum
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 410 archive.org
    Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: cat. 10, p. 50 - 51
    William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962. Mentioned: p. 20, cat. no. 25; reproduced: p. 21
    Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter. African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. Reproduced: p. 153, fig. 280
  • African Art: Permutations of Power. Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art (organizer) (October 13, 1997-February 1, 1998).
    Gainesville, FL: Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, 10/13/97 - 2/1/98 African Art: Permutations of Power (no catalogue)
    Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).
    CMA 1977: "Year in Review 1976," Bulletin LXIV (February 1977), cat. no. 36, p. 74, repr. p. 72.
    Washington, DC: National Gallery, African Sculpture, cat. no. 3, repr.
    International Exhibition Foundation
    Kansas City, MO: Nelson Atkins Museum, The Imagination of Primitive Man, 1962 cat. no. 25
  • {{cite web|title=Figure|url=false|author=|year=possibly early 1400s|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.29