How you can use this image

This image is available to be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence (CC BY-SA).

This image can be reproduced in any way, for commercial or non-commercial purposes, but any work you create using this image must also be licensed under this same licence.

Wherever you reproduce the image or an altered version of it, you must attribute the original creators (acknowledge the original artist(s), the person/organisation that took the photograph of the work) and any other stated rights holders.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find more images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Download

More information

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

This painting is by an unknown artist from Papua New Guinea. Gable end panel from a ‘haus tambaran’ . The panel is of bark mounted on a rectilinear grid framework and is painted in four colours: black, white, red and yellow. The depiction is of an anthropomorphic face and the subject is Nggwalndu, the ancestral deity of the Abelam people. In the haus tambaran, boys under go initiation and meet Nggwalndu. This image depicts his presence to the women and initiated children who are forbidden to enter the initiation house.

Horniman Museum and Gardens

Forest Hill

Title

Nggwalndu

Date

c.1950

Medium

pigment on bark

Measurements

H 99.1 x W 76.2 cm

Accession number

21.3.63/1

Acquisition method

purchased, 1963

Work type

Painting

Horniman Museum and Gardens

100 London Road, Forest Hill, Greater London SE23 3PQ England

This venue is open to the public. Not all artworks are on display. If you want to see a particular artwork, please contact the venue.

View venue

Artist or maker

unknown artist

View profile

Sketchbook Page Royal Welch Fusiliers Regimental Museum
Henry Grey, (1541–1615), 6th Earl of Kent, and Mary Cotton (d.1580), Countess of Kent English Heritage, De Grey Mausoleum
Charles I or James I Oriel College, University of Oxford
Figure Head Ben Uri Gallery & Museum
Fragment from the 'Temple Pyx' Glasgow Museums Resource Centre (GMRC)
Sketchbook Page Royal Welch Fusiliers Regimental Museum
Amabel Elizabeth (d.1827) and Thomas Phillip (d.1810) English Heritage, De Grey Mausoleum
34,814 more