Formal Analysis Of The Female Figure Henry Sayre

For the formal analysis Essay I have chosen Fig. 1-14: female figure (nkisi), Kongo people (muserongo), Zaire, late 19th century. Wood, iron nails, glass, resin, height 20 1/4 “ x 11” x 8. University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA. The subject of the female figure is one in the 19th century as European states colonized the continent. IN central Africa certain people can communicate with the dead and are accepted as healers, diviners, and defenders of the living. They believed in the Minkonde, Minkonde were statues meant to symbolize witches, thieves, adulterers, and wrongdoers at night kind of like voodoo dolls. They usually have a hole in their stomach to contain bilongo (magical medicines) sometimes blood, plants, white clay, and red ocher. This statue relates more to the art and spiritual belief one of the six major themes in the book a world of art by Henry Sayre.
Its texture is of wood, iron, glass, and resin. The space of this sculpture is currently in University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA. Its human looking form and realisticness does not match with the texture. The eyes are made of glass the body made of wood and the nails of iron. The figure lets out a creepy vibe and I would understand why the Europeans would be kind of freaked out. Note that the figure is balanced even though during that time Africa was said to be not as developed but they still managed to understand the basics of math. The movement of the statue is supposed to indicate as if it is springing forward. In many figures one arm is raised and holds a knife or a spear suggesting that it is ready to attack (but in this the spear is missing which is normal). Other Minkonde stand up right in a stance of