Ɵ Fragment of a Tabwa double statuette, Tumbwé... - Lot 48 - Giquello

Lot 48
Go to lot
Estimation :
60000 - 90000 EUR
Ɵ Fragment of a Tabwa double statuette, Tumbwé... - Lot 48 - Giquello
Ɵ Fragment of a Tabwa double statuette, Tumbwé style, Democratic Republic of the Congo Presumed time period: 18th century Wood (apodytes dimidiata) with deep oily patina H. 31.5 cm Fragment of a Tabwa double figure, Tumbwé style, Democratic Republic of the Congo H. 12 ¼ in Provenance: - Collected in 1973-1974 from Bernard de Grunne - Collection Annie and Jean-Pierre Jernander, Brussels - Quay-Lombrail sale, Paris, 26 June 1996, lot 13 - Private collection Exhibition: - Tabwa-The Rising of a New Moon-A Century of Tabwa Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Jan-March 1986 - Tabwa-The Rising of a New Moon-A Century of Tabwa Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, April-August 1986 - Tabwa-The Rising of a New Moon-A Century of Tabwa Art, Royal Museum of Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium, Sept.Oct. 1986 Publication : - Evan M. Maurer, and Allen F. Roberts, Tabwa, The Rising of a New Moon: A century of Tabwa Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art; Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1985, p. 102, pl. 3 and p. 225, No. 13. This magnificent fragment, in the Tumbwe style, which can be described as proto-tabwa given its style and obvious antiquity, depicts a royal personage carried on the shoulders of a dignitary or courtier. This rare theme is common to West and Central Africa. This practice is best illustrated by a 1910s photograph by missionary Dan Crawford showing the Kazembe king of the Lunda carried at the head of a procession. His attitude and gestures are comparable to those of this statuette. There is a second equally remarkable fragment in a private collection, reproduced in Roberts and Maurer's book (p. 225, N°14), which is so similar in its sculpture and gestures that one would like to think that the two works are made by the same hand. The Tabwa are on the borders of the Lukuga and Luvua rivers and are therefore very close to the Luba and Hemba, ethnic groups in which many borrowings from Tabwa art are found. All that remains of the bearer is the head and the left hand placed on the thigh of the royal figure who is sitting on his shoulders in a hieratic and noble attitude: the bust is straight, an adze is on the right shoulder while his left hand is on the bearer's head. A very beautiful patina of palm oil has impregnated this statuette during numerous ceremonies. The erosion that is very present in its lower part also testifies to the very long use of this important work of the Tabwa corpus. Ɵ This lot is a temporary import
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue