The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 21, 2025

An orange terracotta sculpture of a head with textured hair or a hat of circular indents and a long, prominent jaw. The head has large, triangular eyes with holes where the pupils and irises would be. The head narrows to a rectangular chin and, from either side of the head, triangular ears jut out.
thermoluminescence date 20–620 CE
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

More than 500 such sculptures—often full figures with elaborate hairstyles and jewelry— have been found in central Nigeria. Named after a discovery site, Nok culture (500 BCE–200 CE or 1500–1 BCE) produced the earliest large figurative artworks in Africa outside of Egypt. Little was known about their social context, as they were first found in mining deposits in the 1920s. Archaeological excavations conducted in the 2000s by a German-Nigerian team suggest that many sculptures were deliberately broken and placed under pavements and in pits, indicating ritual practice. Male-centered art histories presumed men made these figurative sculptures; however, they incorporate building and firing techniques practiced only by women.
  • ?-1995
    (Emile Deletaille Antiquaire, Brussels, Belgium, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1995
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1995
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Emile 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.
  • 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
  • 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=Head|url=false|author=|year=thermoluminescence date 20–620 CE|access-date=21 May 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1995.21