Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Power Figure (Nkisi N'Kondi: Mangaaka)
Not on view
The semicircular or oval eyes of Mangaaka figures were cut from a ceramic tile with lead-tin glaze of nineteenth-century European origin. They were drilled to provide a hole for an iron nail pupil and attached to the eye socket at the perimeter with black resin as a sealant. Examination during restoration revealed that one of the eye cavities of this example is empty of its original contents, though the resin sealant was carefully applied to the interior surface of the container and to the reverse of the ceramic inlay. This suggests that the ocular cavities of all the figures originally concealed matter that was initially carefully sealed within but later deliberately removed by an individual knowledgeable about their contents.
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