Head (Q60779147)

Label from: English (en)

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collection: Cleveland Museum of Art (Q657415)
location: Cleveland Museum of Art (Q657415)
depicts: mask (Q161524) nose (Q7363) eye (Q7364)
instance of: sculpture (Q860861)

catalog URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1995.21

information from the Cleveland Museum of Art catalog

description: This Nok terracotta is an exceptionally well-preserved large head that was probably once part of a life-size seated figure, posed with knees drawn up and chin resting on the forearm. Whether or not such heads were meant to be an early form of portraiture is unknown. There is also the possibility that these heads were to honor ancestors, and in part to communicate with the spirit world of the deceased.

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