The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Round terracotta face with a speckled red-brown and yellow texture. Raised nose, closed eyelids, eyebrows, and semi-circular ears protrude from the face, with only a subtle hint of upturned lips. On the top of the head, the hair is wound into a neat, curly bun.

Memorial head (nsodie)

late 1600s–early 1700s

Ghana, Akan-style sculpture, unknown female ceramicist

Terracotta
Overall: 19.1 x 13.6 x 15.5 cm (7 1/2 x 5 3/8 x 6 1/8 in.)
Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund 1990.22
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The woman who sculpted this head did so without making a sketch, working from her memory of the subject.

Description

This is an idealized portrait of an Akan royal. The Akan states formed in West Africa around the 1400s. Akan royal family members commissioned terracotta portraits like this from female artists during someone’s life. Following their death and burial, the family placed these sculptures in a sacred grove. The woman who sculpted this head over 300 years ago worked from memory, without sketches. The resulting sculpture combined idealized physical qualities of elite figures with individual details. The hairstyle and skin color of this portrait reflect its subject’s individuality. In contrast, his calm expression reflects the desired “cool composure” of elites.
  • by at least 1990
    (Arts Primitifs, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1990–
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Turner, Evan H. “Acquisitions: 1990.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 2 (February 1991): 44, no. 62, repr. p. 36. www.jstor.org
    Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Cleveland Museum of Art." African Arts 30, no. 1 (1997): 66-71, p .68.
    Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: Selected works of African Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: cat. 20, p. 70 – 71. Reproduced: cat. 20, p. 70 - 71
    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. 30-31
  • From the Earth through Her Hands: African Ceramics. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 21, 2024-September 21, 2025).
  • {{cite web|title=Memorial head (nsodie)|url=false|author=|year=late 1600s–early 1700s|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.22