A Mma in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gourielli collection in 1966, when a large number of Anyi terracottas that had been in storage for many years passed to collections where they would be available for study.' Anyi portraits are said to be physical likenesses of those whom they portray; they are called photos of the dead. Although a definitive statement on Anyi terracottas may be some years away, a research note for this issue of African Arts may help to generate more discussion of the subject. In this essay, I will discuss a single, particularly fine example of Anyi portraiture: the mma at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1964 Nelson Rockefeller gave an Anyi terracotta statuette of a musician to the Museum of Primitive Art in New

Archaeology · Art · Geography · Metropolitan area · Visual arts · African history and culture studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories