Crucifix, 16th-17th century, 11 1/16 × 4 × 3/4 in. (28.1 × 10.16 × 1.91 cm), Brass, Democratic Republic of Congo, 16th-17th century, The Kingdom of Kongo, in central Africa, officially became Christian in the late 1400s, after the baptism of its king. This opened the door to Catholic missionaries, and the Christian ideas and icons that began circulating through the kingdom soon found their way into Kongo art and religious thought. The crucifix was the foremost of these icons, a potent symbol of the new faith that happened to mirror the indigenous 'cosmogram,' a cross-like symbol conveying the Kongo concept of a two-way passage between the world of the living and the world of the dead.