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Power Figure: Seated Male (Nkisi)

19th century, inventoried ca.1875

Not on view

This nkisi in the elegantly rendered form of a contemplative seated leader features traces of resin on the stomach where a pack of empowering matter was originally attached by an nganga. It was reproduced in a lithograph along with thirty other minkisi collected as part of the Loango Coast Expedition of 1873–74, organized by Adolf Bastian and sponsored by the German Africa Society. As first director of the Berlin Ethnologisches Museum, Bastian endeavored to be comprehensive in his selection of minkisi from Loango, but he did not provide specific information on any of them.

Power Figure: Seated Male (Nkisi), Wood, Kongo peoples — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Title: Power Figure: Seated Male (Nkisi)

Date: 19th century, inventoried ca.1875

Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Loango Coast; Cabinda, Angola; Republic of the Congo

Culture: Kongo peoples

Medium: Wood

Dimensions: H. 7 7/8 in. (20 cm), W. 3 1/4 in. (8.2 cm), D. 3 1/4 in. (8.2 cm)

Classification: Wood-Sculpture

Credit Line: Private collection

The Met

The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Met

The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.