2-726-656 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Crucifix , late 1800s-early 1900s. Consisting of a corpus cast in metal alloys and attached to a wooden cross, Kongo crucifixes were augmented with various decorative elements derived from Christian iconography, including small praying figures, like the one here set at Christ's feet. The emaciated body captures the connection between death and regeneration, a concept central to both Christianity and the Kongo religion, while the combination of the crucified Christ and the cross constructs the Kongo cosmogram, a physical manifestation of the two-way passage between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Although Kongo crucifixes had become political regalia when they were acquired in the 1800s and 1900s, they retained their meaning as symbols of the otherworld, which served as the source for a ruler's legitimacy and power.