Formerly in the Collection of: Museum fur Volkerkunde, Leipzig.
Nail Figure, between 1875 and 1900
- Kongo, African
Wood with screws, nails, blades, cowrie shell and other materials
- Overall: 45 1/2 inches × 18 1/2 inches × 15 inches (115.6 × 47 × 38.1 cm)
Founders Society Purchase, Eleanor Clay Ford Fund for African Art
76.79
Details
This Nail Figure served as doctor, judge, and priest. It was carved to capture the power of spirits (minkisi, singular nkisi), which was necessary for healing and adjudicating disputes. The figure was filled with powerful magical substances (bilongo) by priests (naganga) who tended it in a shrine and made its spirit powers available to individuals. The large cowrie shell held strong medicines that gave the sculpture its power. This nkisi n'kondi would have originally worn a large beard and a straw skirt. When an agreement was reached, both sides would swear an oath before the nkisi n'kondi and drive iron blades or nails into it to seal the oath. In this way the figure's supernatural powers could be called upon to punish those who broke their oaths.
Detroit Collects African Art. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1977, no. 136 (ill.). Bulletin of the DIA 56 (April, 1977): 13. Bulletin of the DIA, no. 4 (1978): 206. “Family Art Game.” DIA Advertising Supplement, Detroit Free Press, May 20, 1979, 2 (ill.). Armstrong, R. P. The Powers of Presence. Philadelphia, 1981, fig 2. 100 Masterworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1985, pp. 68-69 (ill.). Perspectives: Angles on African Art. Exh. cat., Center for African Art. New York, 1987. African Masterworks In The Detroit Institute of Arts. Washington and London, 1995, cat. no. 58.
Kongo, African, Nail Figure, between 1875 and 1900, Wood with screws, nails, blades, cowrie shell and other materials. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Eleanor Clay Ford Fund for African Art, 76.79.
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