unidentified Congolese

Description

One of the important style characteristics of the Lower Zaire River area is the tendancy toward naturalism, especially in funeral portraits like this which were placed on the grave of the deceased to help the spirit on its way to the afterlife. The life-like carving of the sensuous lips, fully-rounded cheeks, and beautifully modelled chin, and the great care given to the details of scarification on the back and upper arm and the chief's hat, mpu , contribute to our feeling of sadness as this mother offers her child on bent knees. Raoul Lehuard has suggested that the child may be dead, and that some o these figures represent the wife of the chief presenting to her husband their first child, still-born or dead soon after birth. In such a case the theme is certainly not that of perpetuation of the royal family (Lehuard 1977). Similar figures, representing both men and women in common poses and engaged in daily tasks, were produced in stone, extremely light wood, and more recently in cement. The Stanley Collection includes a similar wooden figure produced by the Sundi (Roy 1979:157). -- Professor Christopher Roy, School of Art and Art History, University of Iowa Contact the Stanley Museum of Art at the University of Iowa: https://stanleymuseum.uiowa.edu/about/contact/ The Stanley Collection compound object 2008 Shrine Southern Savannah Lower Zaire River Represents wife of chief presenting dead child to chief Death Abundance Women's art Kongo 2 million KiKongo, part of the Central Bantu cluster of languages Atlantic coast...