Female figure
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Object Details
- Anyi artist
- Label Text
- The Anyi of the Sanwi kingdom of southeastern Côte d'Ivoire are one of the several Akan groups that migrated from what is now Ghana between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. This memorial figure is a conventionalized portrait of the deceased--so portraying their physical likeness that they are thought of as "photos" of the dead. The likeness is not in its features but in the details of scarification and hairstyle.
- Known as mma, these portrait figures were made from the 18th to the early 20th century when pressure from missionaries and colonial officers discouraged production. They typically represented royalty: kings, queenmothers and members of their court.
- After use as an effigy at the ceremonial funeral, the figures were installed as part of an effigy court in the mmaso, a part of the sacred forest reserved as the village for the mma.
- For the Anyi, the arrangement of groups of such figures expressed the genealogy and history of the town's rulers.
- Description
- Black ceramic legless figure, its hairstyle formed from projections sweeping back from the head, coffee bean eyes, slit mouth, annulated neck, projecting short stubby arms, raised circular and ridge marks on the torso and pierced scarification marks on the face and sides of the head.
- Provenance
- Herbert Baker, Pacific Palisades, California, -- to 1967
- Published References
- Park, Edwards. 1983. Treasures of the Smithsonian. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, p. 397.
- African Art. 1970. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Art Gallery, p. 26, no. 37.
- Content Statement
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- Credit Line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Baker
- Mid-17th to early 20th century
- Object number
- 67-15-29
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Figure
- Medium
- Ceramic
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 36.4 x 13.7 x 17.1 cm (14 5/16 x 5 3/8 x 6 3/4 in.)
- Geography
- Krinjabo region, Côte d'Ivoire
- See more items in
- National Museum of African Art Collection
- Object Name
- mma
- National Museum of African Art
- Topic
- Funerary
- male
- female
- Record ID
- nmafa_67-15-29
- Metadata Usage (text)
- Usage conditions apply
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys7d33850ea-9a2c-43b8-a18e-7f43d46d4b81
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