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Source Description
The most varied group of soapstone figures and heads has been found in the homelands of the Kissi. Calling them pomda ("images of the dead"), the Kissi placed them in ancestral shrines, offering them the last seeds at sowing times and the first fruits of the harvest. However, the sculptures are believed to have been made centuries ago by the ancestors of the Kissi, the so-called Sapi people.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
148772
label
Figure
core
obj
dtoType
sculpture
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
148772
contentType
sculpture
title
Figure
description
The most varied group of soapstone figures and heads has been found in the homelands of the Kissi. Calling them pomda ("images of the dead"), the Kissi placed them in ancestral shrines, offering them the last seeds at sowing times and the first fruits of the harvest. However, the sculptures are believed to have been made centuries ago by the ancestors of the Kissi, the so-called Sapi people.
date
possibly early 1400s
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60779202
genreSpecific
Sculpture
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 23.8 x 11.2 x 12.5 cm (9 3/8 x 4 7/16 x 4 15/16 in.)
cul
Africa, West Africa, Sierra Leone, Sapi-style carver
accession
1976.29
Source extras
tec
soapstone
tombstone
Figure, possibly early 1400s. Africa, West Africa, Sierra Leone, Sapi-style carver. Soapstone; overall: 23.8 x 11.2 x 12.5 cm (9 3/8 x 4 7/16 x 4 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Lucile Munro in memory of her husband Thomas Munro, Curator of Education from 1931 to 1967, 1976.29
collection
African Art
formerAccessionNumbers
184.62
didYouKnow
Sapi sculptors worked in stone—like in this sculpture—as well as ivory.
citations
citation
Fagg, William Buller, International Exhibitions Foundation, National Gallery of Art (U.S.), William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Brooklyn Museum. 1970. <em>African Sculpture; [Loan Exhibition] Circulated by the International Exhibitions Foundation, 1970</em>. Washington: International Exhibitions Foundation, p. 17, no. 3.
citation
Munro, Thomas. Form and Style in the Arts: An Introduction to Aesthetic Morphology. Cleveland: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1970, fig. 63.
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>1976 Year in Review</em>. Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland: OH, 1977, no. 2, cat. 36.
citation
Drewal, Henry John. African Art: A Brief Guide to the Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1989, fig. 2.
citation
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. 1997. <em>African Art : Permutations of Power</em>. Gainesville, Fla: Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, fig. 32.
citation
Plass, Margaret. “Above the Salt.” <em>Expedition Magazine</em> 5, no. 3 (May, 1963): 39-41.
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 410
citation
Petridis, Constantijn. <em>South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. </em>Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. 10, p. 50 - 51
citation
William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. <em>The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World</em>. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 20, cat. no. 25; reproduced: p. 21
citation
Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter.<em> African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989</em>. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 153, fig. 280
creditline
Gift of Lucile Munro in memory of her husband Thomas Munro, Curator of Education from 1931 to 1967
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:38:31.405000
sourceId
148772
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
soapstone
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
53e8fd764fc5a99b