The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Muted gold colored wood sculpture coated in copper and brass. Suggesting a face, a central oval has two semi-circles like eyes, a pyramid nose, and no mouth. The face is crowned with a semi-circle balanced on top and two constructions flaring out from behind the face like elephant ears. Wood carved in a kite-like outline extends below the face, the metal coat transitioning to plain wood in the lower half.

Sculptural Element from a Reliquary Ensemble (mbulu ngulu)

probably 1800s

Africa, Central Africa, Gabon, Kota-style maker

Wood, copper alloy, and iron
Overall: 61 x 27.5 x 3 cm (24 x 10 13/16 x 1 3/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2005.2
Location: 108A African

Did You Know?

The diamond-shaped "body" of this sculpture was originally pushed into a container of ancestral relics (bones) up to its "shoulders." Metal covers only areas of the wood that were left visible.

Description

The ethnic map of eastern Gabon is extremely complicated as a result of continuous migratory movements since the 17th century. Kota is the name of one of three culturally closely related people. All share the tradition of commemorating and honoring ancestors through the preservation and worship of sacred ancestral relics within cylindrical bark containers or bound in fiber packets. Covered with sheets of copper and brass, this abstract wooden human-shaped figure—distilled to a planar surface—served as a guardian set atop a basket container holding the skull, certain bones, and other relics of a deceased man. It belonged to a religious institution that honored the memory of individuals who made major contributions during their lifetime. The luminosity of the copper and brass covering was considered intimidating and spiritually empowered to deflect harm and thus protect the owner and his family.
  • ?–2005
    Mr. and Mrs. Willem Vranken-Hoet, Brussels, Belgium, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2005–
    Purchased by the Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Debbaut, Jan, Dominique Favart, G. van Geertruyen, and Palais des beaux-arts (Brussels, Belgium). 1988. Utotombo : L’art D’afrique Noire Dans Les Collections Privées Belges : Société Des Expositions Du Palais Des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles, 25 Mars-5 Juin 1988 Ed. française ed. Bruxelles: Palais des beaux-arts, Illustration of piece on p. 90, catalogue entry on p. 293-4.
    Petridis, Constantine. "New Acquisitions of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art". African Arts. (44) No. 1, Spring 2011. Pg. 54; 58-59, Fig. 6.
    Franklin, David, C. Griffith Mann, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 2012. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, p. 236-7.
    Perrois, Louis. Kota. Milan: 5 Continents Editions; New York : Distributed in the United States and Canada by Harry N. Abrams, 2012. Pg 47, pl 25.
    Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. "An Obsession with Heads: The Impact of African Arts, Anthropology, and Photography on the Works of Alberto Giacometti," Medium (May 2022). medium.com
    "Major Acquisitions 2000-2005." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 45, no. 6 (July/August 2005): 6-17. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 12 archive.org
    Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Reproduced: P. 11, no. 34
    Smith, Fred T., Judith Perani, Joseph L. Underwood, and Martha J. Ehrlich. The Visual Arts of Africa : Gender, Power, and Life Cycle Rituals. Second edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 237, no. 8.10
    Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. "Martin Puryear and Africa." In Martin Puryear: Nexus, edited by Emily Liebert, 142-151. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 147-148, fig. 61
  • The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
    MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 34, p. 117, color repr. p. 11.
  • {{cite web|title=Sculptural Element from a Reliquary Ensemble (mbulu ngulu)|url=false|author=|year=probably 1800s|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2005.2