2-728-718 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Figurine, late 1800s-early 1900s. The Delennes stumbled upon this group of seven anthropomorphic figurines (2010.437-443) in an antiques shop in Nice during a holiday in the south of France in 1961. The carvings carry paperboard labels with inscriptions in French that indicate their ethnic and geographic provenance as well as some other details. Stemming from the Kongo region in West Central Africa, these seven sculptures feature a variety of gestures and poses; the use of mirror or glass for the eyes; and a red-white-black colour scheme. They belong to the broad category of minkisi (sing. nkisi), containers for medicines in which an ancestral spirit was believed to reside. Two of the group are minkisi of the nduda type, characterized by the attached "guns" loaded with gunpowder and used to shoot witches.