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Portrait Figure of Metang, the 10th King of Batufam
Bamileke (Bamileke ; Kingdom of Batufam, Cameroon; Coastal West Africa)
c. 1912-1914
- Medium
- Wood and pigment with traces of chalk and camwood
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 130.5 × 43.2 × 31 cm (51 3/8 × 17 × 12 1/4 in.); 129 × 38.5 × 34 cm (50 13/16 × 15 3/16 × 13 7/16 in.)
- Culture
- Cameroon
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Africa
- Credit line
- Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions nudity. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This stylized portrait of Metang was commissioned around 1912, when he was initiated into kingship. The ruler holds a buffalo drinking horn and a gourd container, two of the most important regalia throughout the Bamileke kingdoms in the Cameroon Grassfields. This figure was photographed several times, always next to the entrance of the Batufam palace, arranged with a portrait of his senior wife and several other sculptures of kings and queens.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
