Triple Crucifix (1500s–1800s)

Triple Crucifix (1500s–1800s)

AP African American Studies Guide

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Topic 1.9

Triple Crucifix by unidentified Kongo artists (central figure, 1500s–1600s; top and bottom figures, 1700s–1800s)

A crucifix sculpture with three crosses, each with a skeletal Christlike figure crucified.


Source: Triple Crucifix, a composite artifact made by unidentified Kongo artists from the 1500s–1600s (central figure) and the 1700s–1800s (top and bottom figures) (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Discussion Questions

  1. Portuguese explorers arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo in the late fifteenth century. How is that history reflected through this artifact?
  2. What is distinctly Kongolese about how Jesus (the central figure) is depicted?
  3. People from sixteenth- through nineteenth-century Kongo were kidnapped and sold as part of the transatlantic slave trade. What does this artifact suggest about the skills, beliefs, and ideas that these enslaved people brought with them to America?