Figure

Description

The most varied group of soapstone figures and heads has been found in the homelands of the Kissi. Calling them pomda ("images of the dead"), the Kissi placed them in ancestral shrines, offering them the last seeds at sowing times and the first fruits of the harvest. However, the sculptures are believed to have been made centuries ago by the ancestors of the Kissi, the so-called Sapi people.

Provenance

Heim, Paris; Heim, Paris; Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Munro

Figure

[]

possibly early 1400s

Accession Number

1976.29

Medium

soapstone

Dimensions

Overall: 23.8 x 11.2 x 12.5 cm (9 3/8 x 4 7/16 x 4 15/16 in.)

Classification

Sculpture

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Lucile Munro in memory of her husband Thomas Munro, Curator of Education from 1931 to 1967