Crucifix

Object Details

Kongo artist

Label Text

The Portuguese arrived along the coast of the Kongo Kingdom in 1483. The missionaries who accompanied these early navigators established a Christian presence that existed until the mid-18th century. Kongo people absorbed some Christian rites and materials into their own practices. Crucifixes made by local casters were derived from early Portuguese prototypes, but Kongo chiefs used them as power tokens without a Christian interpretation.

Description

Crucifix with a figure of Christ in a loin cloth. Two figures with clasped hands sit atop the crosspiece of the cross. One figure kneels below Christ's crossed feet. A band of incised cross-hatching borders the edge of the cross.

Provenance

Merton Simpson, New York, -- before 1988

Pat Dierickx, Brussels, 1988

Ernst Anspach, New York, 1988 to 1991

Exhibition History

Pavilion: A New Look, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 9, 2019–ongoing

Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue - From the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, November 7, 2014-January 24, 2016

The Earth Moves-We Follow: Celebrating African Art, Frank H. McClung Museum, Knoxville, January 10-May 18, 2003

The Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, October 22-July 16, 1996; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, February 1-August 3, 1997; Museum of African American History, Detroit, October 8-December 27, 1997; New Orleans Museum of Art, February 1-April 12, 1998; Baltimore Museum of Art, June 7-August 23, 1998; American Museum of Natural History, New York, October 9, 1998-January 3, 1999

Published References

Cosentino, Donald J. (ed). 1995. Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of cultural History, University of California, p. 31, no. 1.8.

Dewey, William J. 2003. The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art. Knoxville: Frank H. McClung Museum, The University of Tennessee, p. 49, no. 52.

Kreamer, Christine Mullen and Adrienne L. Childs (eds). 2014. Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 102, 113, no. 64, pl. 42.

Content Statement

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Image Requests

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Credit Line

Gift of Ernst Anspach

Late 17th-early 18th century

Object number

91-10-1

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Sculpture

Medium

Copper alloy

Dimensions

H x W x D: 33.3 x 14.9 x 2.9 cm (13 1/8 x 5 7/8 x 1 1/8 in.)

Geography

Kongo Central Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Congo

See more items in

National Museum of African Art Collection

On View

NMAfA, Pavilion Gallery

Object Name

nkangi kiditu

National Museum of African Art

Topic

male

Record ID

nmafa_91-10-1

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys76414e567-c7ab-436d-a0d0-588e163b2d87