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Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
Reliquary Guardian Figure (Mbulu Ngulu)
This reliquary figure has lived many lives. Believed to protect living descendants, the remains of important ancestors were held in a basket once attached to the lower half of the diamond-shaped base. Light moves across the figure’s reflective metal and evokes the flashes of insight ancestors can provide for their descendants.
ArtistUnrecorded Kota artist
Gabon, Africa
Date19th century
MediumWood with beaten copper-alloy overlay
Dimensions24 1/2 x 15 x 3 in. (62.2 x 38.1 x 7.6 cm)
Credit LineAlfred Stieglitz Collection, Co-owned by Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
ClassificationTribal Art
ProvenanceMarius de Zayas (possibly); to Alfred Stieglitz, New York, NY; by bequest to Georgia O’Keeffe (his wife), New York, NY, 1946; to Fisk University, Nashville, TN, 1949; to Fisk University, Nashville, TN, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, as co-owners, 2012
On ViewNo
This artwork's face covers about 50× the area of a tennis ball.Drawn to the same scale.
