My visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art! Power Figure:Central Africa 19th Century
On my trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I went to see paintings and sculptures from the medieval era. I was excited to get out of class and go explore artworks. When I entered the MET, I got some time to explore the artworks in the African Art gallery when everyone was taking a bathroom break. Looking around I saw a lot of wooden and iron casted sculptures, masks and animal figures that were kept in boxes made out of plexiglass. When I looked at this ‘Power Figure’, I instantly felt like touching its thorny nails that were poking its body. This figure is a Wood- sculpture that belongs to the 19th Century. Looking at those thorns I could tell that the figure was in pain. Its distressed facial expression added to the emotion the figure is trying to portray to me. It semi-circular eyes with a small pupil looking downward and the fat lips with a half-open mouth and broken teeth make it looks like he is screaming in pain. However, when I started researching on this figure, I realized that the idea behind these figures was completely different.
Central African power figures are among the ubiquitous genres identified with African art. Such power figures were conceived to house specific mystical forces. Therefore, they were collaborative creations of sculptors and ritual specialists. This specific power figure was one of the twelve that belonged to the highest class within the people of Kongo during the 19th Centaury and they were identified with Mangaaka who were the preeminent force of jurisprudence (of law and justice).That is why it called ‘Nkisi N’ Kondi: Mangaaka’. Back to my point about what these figures represented was that they were called power because they were represented as a presiding authority and enforcing lord or king.Its posture which is leaning forward and its aggressive gestures are supposed to make it look like as if he is challenging someone, potentially the enemies, fearlessly. The metals that are supposed to be embedded into the expansive torso signify the figure’s role as a witness and enforcer of affairs critical to the Yombe community. The thorns are unevenly spaced around the body, from the neck to the toes. The figure is disappearing from the abdomen, creating a cavity that originally attracted the figure’s defining force. Overall the figure has round shoulders and muscular arms. The face is almond shaped and it looks like it is being pulled down by gravity. The feet are in a rectangular shape and it seems like he is wearing rectangular slippers or standing on a rectangular platform. The toes on the legs and the fingers on the hand are very detailed. The ears are higher than the eyes and the cheekbones are lifted up. The eyebrows look like they are braided and the headdress is detailed with lines running in a triangular direction. This sculpture is 46.5 m high and is made out of wood using the resin technique. It has a headdress which was usually won by the chiefs or priests at that time in the Yombe group. The sculpture is rusted from the forehead, the cheeks and the elbows and bottom of the abdomen. Most of the thorny nails are rusted as well. This is due to its exposure to air over time. Through this object, I learned how important it is to learn about the history of a place to understand what a piece of art or sculpture means. It always doesn’t mean what you see at the first sight. Eventhough, this sculpture portrayed an emotion of pain to me, its purpose was to portray its strength and fearlessness to people. It is not always what it looks like, sometimes objects portray different meanings when put in their historical context.
MET: 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028
Fun Fact: It is the home to the world’s oldest surviving piano.
