Funerary Portrait Head (Nsodie)
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
The Akan of southern Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire made terracotta heads and figures as memorials to important deceased individuals. A head such as this one would be installed in the asensie, or “place of the pots,” outside of the village. This terracotta genre, observed among the Akan by Europeans in the 1600s, continued through the early twentieth century.
Caption
Akan. Funerary Portrait Head (Nsodie), 17th or 18th century. Terracotta, 8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Becker, 76.161. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 76.161_bw.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Culture
Title
Funerary Portrait Head (Nsodie)
Date
17th or 18th century
Geography
Place made: Ghana
Medium
Terracotta
Classification
Dimensions
8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Becker
Accession Number
76.161
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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