The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 1, 2023

Figurine

late 1800s-early 1900s

Africa, Central Africa, Republic of the Congo, Kongo-style maker

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

Fun Fact

This is one of two tallest in the collection of spiritual figurines loaded with gunpowder to shoot at witches: <em>nduda</em>, 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.”

Provenance
?-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
Citations
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
Exhibition history

Fragments of the Invisible: The Rene and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 27, 2013-February 9, 2014).

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