The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 3, 2024

Figurine

Figurine

late 1800s-early 1900s
Wood, metalized glass, organic materials (including resin), feathers, plant fibers, iron, and copper alloy
Overall: 34 x 9.5 x 25 cm (13 3/8 x 3 3/4 x 9 13/16 in.)
René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2010.439
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This is one of two tallest in the collection of spiritual figurines loaded with gunpowder to shoot at witches: nduda, or “night guns.”

Description

One of seven minkisi figures previously in the René and Odette Delenne collection, this object contained medicines in which an ancestral spirit was believed to reside. This figure is one of the two tallest in the collection. Feathers of a bird of prey adorn its head, with two small guns pointing upward and a third hanging down. It had belonged to “the sorcerer of Louboulou.”
  • ?-1961
    (Unidentified art dealer, Nice, FR, 1961, sold to René and Odette Delenne)
    1961-2010
    René [1901-1998] and Odette Delenne [1925-2012], Brussels, BE, 2010, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2010
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 2010
  • 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, 54-58.
    . Mentioned: pp. 54, 56, 113; reproduced: 58-59, cat. 14
  • Fragments of the Invisible: The Rene and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27, 2013-February 9, 2014).
  • {{cite web|title=Figurine|url=false|author=|year=late 1800s-early 1900s|access-date=03 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2010.439