The Memorial Head or Nsodie is a type of 15th, 16th, 17th to 18th century ceramic portrait sculpture of the Akan peoples, believed to have been created by women artists depicting royal personages.
Early history and creation
The Memorial Head (Nsodie) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was created in the early centuries. It was found in Ghana, mostly Twifo-Heman traditional area from the Akan peoples. These heads were commissioned by the Akan peoples to memorialize royal personages before death. It was thought that elderly women artists fulfilled these commissions.[3] These heads were placed in memorial groves called asensie, or “place of the pots,”where prayers, libations and offerings could be offered
A
BONHAMS
Specialist – African, Oceanic
And Pre – Columbian Art
New – York, United States
Tel. +1323 4365 416
TWO AKAN HEMANG-TWIFO STYLE COMMEMORATIVE HEADS, GHANA
Terracotta
height of largest: 10 1/2in (26.5cm)
height of smallest: 8 1/2in (21.5cm)
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, New York
Cf. de Grunne, Bernard, Terres Cuites Anciennes de L’Ouest Africain, UCL Arts Africain, 1980, II.4., p. 166-7 for a similar head in the Hemang-Twifo style. “This shaven head topped by a patch of hair shows ears that are not pierced and a hole in the back which was probably made to facilitate firing.”
B
1900 West Olney Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19141
Phone: 215.951.1000
LASALLE UNIVERSITY
Terra Cotta Funerary Head (Possibly late Twifo- Hemang Confederacy period)
Late 18th Century – Early 19th Century
18th Century-19th Century
8 3/4 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/4 in. (22 x 14 x 13 cm)
African, Akan, Akan, Ghana, Africa
Object Type: AFRICAN
Creation Place: Africa, Ghana
Medium and Support: Terra Cotta
C
950 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20560
202.633.4600
202.357.4879 (fax)
ARTIST Akan artist Commemorative head
DATE Late 17th-early 18th century
MEDIUM Ceramic
DIMENSIONS H x W x D: 19.4 x 14.6 x 11.4 cm (7 5/8 x 5 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
CREDIT LINE Gift of Gerald Pennington
GEOGRAPHY Ghana
OBJECT NUMBER 81-26-7
CLASSIFICATION
STATUS
This terracotta head commemorated a member of a royal family who lived in what is now south-central Ghana. Such sculptures, viewed as substitutes for the deceased, were installed at formal funerals, which took place days or months after the actual burial.
Although regarded as portraits, they offer only a stylized resemblance to the departed, with some specific aspects such as hairstyle, a beard or pierced ears. Stylistically similar pieces have been found in an archaeological site at Hemang (Twifo-Hemang), in southern Ghana, that was occupied from before 1690 to about 1730.
The broad forehead, the semicircular eyebrows, closed eyes, naturalistic nose, and smallmouth are characteristic of the Twifo style. The head bears scarification marks just below the temples. When a royal personage died, a potter would be commissioned by the family to make a commemorative portrait along with sculptures representing family members, associates and servants.
The potter would also be asked to make cooking pots and jars. This group of ceramic objects, produced for a special purpose and used only once, probably was assembled within the village where the funeral services were held.
The female head or queen mother of another clan would prepare food in the pots. Then the figures, the food, and the hearth would be moved to an area called the “place of pots,” a spot outside the village reserved for funerary objects.
The male head of the clan would taste the food and the funeral party would return to the village, leaving the food, pots and portraits behind. Research suggests that such funerary practices, in which portrait figures played an important part, existed as early as the 17th century and lasted well into the 20th.
D
Artist / Origin: Akan artist, Twifo region, Hemang city, Ghana
Region: Africa
Date: 17th century
Period: 1400 CE – 1800 CE
Material: Terracotta, roots, quartz fragments
Medium: Sculpture
Dimensions: H: approx. 8 in. (20.24 cm.)
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection
Known as “memorial heads,” Akan terracottas like this one were created upon an individual’s death, both as a form of commemoration and an object into which the spirit of the deceased might be invoked. In Akan culture, the practice of creating memorial heads appears to go back at least as far as the seventeenth century, possibly to the late sixteenth.
The Akan, who inhabit areas of present-day southern Ghana and the Ivory Coast, continued to make these heads over succeeding generations and in some areas, produced them well into the modern era.
Despite the fact that even the most naturalistic of the heads appears to depict generic features, the terracottas are considered to be portraits. Rather than attempting to copy the unique physiognomy of the individual, these portraits identify their subjects through hairstyles, scarification, accessories, and other visible signs.
For the most part, however, they focus on more conventional symbols and shared traits indicative of social and aesthetic ideals. Rings around the neck, for instance, allude to layers of fat that signify health, beauty, and success. During most of the history of these terracotta heads, they were reserved for royalty, and many of their features are specifically designed to convey the subject’s elite status. The facial expression exhibited by portraits like this one tends to be neutral and even distant.
This might reflect the look that Akan royalty actively cultivated, one that suppressed individuality in favor of regal character. It has also been suggested that the quartz fragments in terracotta pieces such as this were intended to produce a kind of luminosity akin to that sought by royal persons who on ceremonial occasions covered their bodies in shea butter containing gold dust.
The most explicit sign of status associated with the portraits, however, is the shape of the head and facial features. Like this head, the portraits often possess round faces with high, broad foreheads and prominent arched brow bones that connect with the nose.
This ideal not only shaped representation, but also living people. Akan mothers molded the still-soft bones of newborns’ heads and faces to achieve these desired traits. Significantly, women were also traditionally the makers of terracotta heads.
E
Among the Ashanti and related Akan tribes (such as Fante, Anyi, etc.) it was customary in the case of important deceased persons to place portrait-like ‘memorial heads’ on their tombs in ‘holy’ burial sites or in shrines. The present ‘portrait head’ of the Akan is shaped in grey-brown engobe and can be attributed to the Hemang-Twifo region.
The relatively long, bulging, ringed neck is surmounted by a typical oval head with wider upper section. With a serious expression, low set ears, three small hair tufts as a coiffure and with three scarification marks on the temples and forehead. On the back of the memorial head a hole is visible that prevents the terracotta piece from cracking when being baked.
A piece with good, old, slightly shiny patina. Only minor age-related damage (some small pieces broken off). In specialised literature the old memorial heads of the Ashanti are dated as far back as the 17th/18th century. Unfortunately, no precise thermoluminescent dating is available for the present terracotta head. However, its style and external appearance definitely indicate its ‘old’ age (18th/19th century?). H: 23 cm. (ME)
Provenance: German private collection.
Lit.: ‘Erde und Erz’ by K.-F. Schädler, ill. 303, 305, 308, 321, 340, 344; ‘Die Kunst des schwarzen Afrika’ by Kerchache, Paudrat, Stephan, ill. 71–73.
F
An Akan terracotta head, completely covered with white kaolin, which showes that this sculpture was used indoors as memorial figure on a sgrine and not in funeral context.The present ‘portrait head’ of the Ashanti is probably attributed to the Hemang-Twifo region.
“Like other examples of African portraiture, these commemorative sculptures are idealized representations that convey individuality through specifics of scarification and hairstyle. The artist would typically be summoned to the deathbed of the deceased in order to observe his or her distinguishing characteristics, which she would depict later, working from memory to capture the individual’s essence.
The figural terracotta sculptures vary enormously in style, ranging from fairly naturalistic and sculpturally rounded forms to examples that are solid, flat, and more dramatically stylized.” Source: MET, NY.
600 – 800,- Euro
Height: 27 cm
Weight: 1,6 kg
G
Harn Museum of Art
3259 Hull Road,
Gainesville, Florida 32608
Phone: 352.392.9826
Directions to the Harn
Staff Directory
Memorial Head
MAKER Akan Artist , Twifo – Hemang
DATE17th – 19th century
MADE / MANUFACTURED Africa
MEDIUM Terracotta
DIMENSIONS8 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 5 3/4 in. (21.6 x 14 x 14.6 cm)
CLASSIFICATIONS Sculpture
CREDIT LINE Gift of Rod McGalliard
OBJECT NUMBER1995.28.47
COLLECTION
• AFRICAN
STATUS
VISUAL DESCRIPTION With neck rings and impressed coiffure design, hollow, large skull and narrow neck.
Terracotta head with triangular notches around coiffure/headdress. Stylized almond shaped eyes which resemble cowrie shells, has defined nose and full lips. Ears are not symmetrically aligned, neck has carved rings.
H
Zemanek-Münster
Zemanek-Münster
Hörleingasse 3-5
D-97070 Würzburg
Allemagne
49 931 17721
info@tribal-art-auktion.de
Memorial head
Ghana, Akan, Style from Hemang – Twifo
fired red clay, beige coating, pigment remains, triangular face with abundant forehead tattoos, coiffure partly covered by clay-like mass/partly remodelled(?), acrylic base.
Memorial heads of the Akan were not thought as individual portraits, they just showed singularities of the deceased, just like coiffure, skin scarification marks or ornaments, which made him recognizable for his relatives. The Akan have extended and elaborate funerary ceremonies for royals and commoners. Images and funerary ceramics were placed in sacred precincts of the forest or in the familys shrine room.
H: 18,5 cm
Provenance:
Roy Stacy, Washington D.C., USA
Lit.: Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Keramik aus Schwarz-Afrika und Alt-Amerika, Zürich 1985, p. 117
Gedenkkopf
Ghana, Akan, Stil von Hemang -Twifo
gebrannter roter Ton, beiger Überzug, Pigmentreste, dreieckiges Gesichtsfeld mit üppigen Stirnskarifikationen, Frisur stellenweise überdeckt von lehmartiger Masse/stellenweise ergänzt(?) Acrylsockel.
Gedenkköpfe der Akan haben keinen porträthaften Charakter, es werden lediglich Eigenheiten des Verstorbenen, wie Frisur, Narbentatauierung oder Schmuck wiedergegeben, die ihn für seine Angehörigen kenntlich machen. Die Akan zelebrierten aufwändige und langwierige Begräbniszeremonien, sowohl für Angehörige des Königshauses als auch für die einfachen Leute. Grabskulpturen wurden an geheimen Orten im Busch oder an Familienschreinen platziert.
H: 18,5 cm
Provenance:
Roy Stacy, Washington D.C., USA
Lit.: Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Keramik aus Schwarz-Afrika und Alt-Amerika, Zürich 1985, p. 117
I
African and Oceanic Art Sotheby’s
Lot 94 is a superb Akan terracotta head, Hemang -Twifo style, a 12-inch-high head of grayish-brown patina with considerable erosion of the large coiffure with most of its circular knobs eroded away.
Despite the condition, however, this lot, shown below, is an exquisite sculpture of great delicacy and its arched brows would intimidate/inspire Modigliani. It has a high estimate of $30,000. It sold for $19,550.
