The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Orange-brown wood figure with a puffy left arm placing a hand on their hip and right arm raised up straight. A cavernous square opening juts out from their stomach while their chest and arms around it, particularly the left arm, are stuck with rusting nails, screws, and blades. The figure's smooth face contrasts with the roughened texture of their body. Their mouth is slightly open and the outline of their eyes imbedded with milky glass.

Male figure (nkisi nkondi)

late 1800s-early 1900s

Democratic Republic of Congo or Cabinda

(Angola), Kongo artist and nganga (priest)
Wood, metalized glass, iron, organic material, ivory or plastic, and natural fiber
Overall: 46 x 25.7 x 19.2 cm (18 1/8 x 10 1/8 x 7 9/16 in.)
René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2010.432
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

A mix of locally made and imported metal nails, blades, and screws cover this figure.

Description

This nkisi nkondi (power figure) lacks most of the materials that transformed it into a vessel for a spirit. Carved by sculptors, minkisi hosted spirits after banganga (priests) placed substances inside to empower them. The mirrored eyes, resin cap, and stomach chamber once contained empowering materials. After the nkisi had served its purpose the nganga removed the materials, stripping it of its spiritual power; the remaining sculpture was discarded. Sometimes, Kongo people removed materials as acts of anti-colonial resistance, disempowering minkisi before Europeans seized them. While we don’t know why it was disempowered, this sculpture is no longer spiritually active.
  • ?–1962
    Jean Willy Mestach [1926-2014], Brussels, Belgium, sold to René and Odette Delenne
    1962–2010
    René [1901–1998] and Odette Delenne [1925–2012], Brussels, Belgium, 2010, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2010–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Petridis, Constantine, et al. Fragments of the Invisible: The René and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art. Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2013, 23, 51, 96. Mentioned: pp. 23, 46-47, 113; reproduced: pp. 51, 96, cat. 12
    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. 252, no. 9.2
  • Julie Mehretu: Portals. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 13, 2022).
    Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-June 26, 2022).
    Fragments of the Invisible: The René and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27, 2013-February 9, 2014).
  • {{cite web|title=Male figure (nkisi nkondi)|url=false|author=|year=late 1800s-early 1900s|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2010.432