Male figure
probably 1800s
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- height: 44.7 x 22.7 x 9.6 cm (17 5/8 x 8 15/16 x 3 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Benue River Valley, Unidentified maker
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, African Art
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Realized in a very distinctive style using the lost-wax method, this figure’s cultural origin and function is limited because it was removed from Nigeria during that country’s turbulent civil war of the late 1960s. Perhaps it was once part of an altar or shrine dedicated to a guardian or tutelary spirit. Connotations of prestige and wealth may explain why copper-alloy objects were diffused across vast territory and inherited over many generations.
