funerary portrait, unrecorded Asante artist

Exhibition Label:
"For Life's Sake: Arts from Africa," Oct-1983, Reinhild Kauenhoven Janzen
These terracotta images are portraits of the dead. Kwahu families in Ghana commissioned these from men or women potters after the death and actual burial of an important person, to be used in the subsequent formal funeral of the deceased. At the very end of the ceremonies they were taken to the cemetery and placed on the grave. The flat, nearly circular heads and delicate facial features make a reference to beauty: after birth the heads of Kwahu infants are massaged to assure a high, flattened, receding forehead. Similarly the ringed neck is a sign of a beautiful woman or a handsome, successful man. These rings indicate rolls of fat which are equated with prosperity. The sex and other portrait aspects of the deceased are indicated by stylized breasts or larynx, by a colored slip to represent the complexion of the individual. These images exemplify the oldest datable African sculptural tradition still practiced to date.