Nkisi Songye statue, Democratic Republic... - Lot 94 - Giquello

Lot 94
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Estimation :
60000 - 80000 EUR
Nkisi Songye statue, Democratic Republic... - Lot 94 - Giquello
Nkisi Songye statue, Democratic Republic of the Congo Hardwood with brown patina and oozing in places, polychrome glass beads, metal slats and cones, plant fibers, raffia cloth, civet fur H. 72.5 cm Nkisi Songye figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo H. 28 ½ in Provenance: - Richard V. Clarke, New-York - Galerie Serge Schoffel, Brafa, January 2016 - French private collection - Private collection Publication: - Galerie Schoffel catalogue at Brafa, Brussels Combining the contributions of the sculptor, the blacksmith (attached to power in Songye culture), and the power of the soothsayer or nganga priest, this Songye sculpture is an emblematic figure, symbolically re-establishing man's relationship with nature and the sacred. Inscribed on a truncated cone-shaped base, the male effigy, dressed in a native cloth loincloth, clasps the swollen abdomen with his trapezoidal hands, evoking the clan. Numerous necklaces made of oumisang glass paste, placed by the sorcerer, adorn the neck and contribute to the fetish's power of attraction. Its face, inscribed in a triangle, is marked by slit eyes evoking interiority, the angular mouth, threatening or loquacious, open on a row of teeth. Crossing the nose in a short pyramid, and underlining the gaze, copper strips held by upholstery nails and with a simple head, keep the secret of their symbolism. Protection against lightning or thunder, forgotten thaumaturgical effects or secrets? No one to this day can say for sure (Neyt, 2004, page 375). Brass cones, present on the forehead and on the umbilicus, complete the partly metallic character of the fetish. Above the hairstyle, crossed by intersecting lines, a high charge concealed under a civet skin. According to François Neyt, the civet (...) with its coarse fur, generally greyish or beige with black bands on the neck and black spots on the body, embodies the alternation of day and night. Its presence on the statue indicates its mastery of daylight (op. cit., page 353). The treatment of the hands, the gaze, the metal lamellae plating on the face could allow us to situate this work in the east of the Songye country, on the border of the Luba territories, whose plastic influence is sensitive here. Protector of a community and not of a single individual, this Songye nkisi fetish combines in its posture the volumes that make it up and the richness of its attributes, the importance and omnipotence of its function. It is in an exceptional state of preservation (skin, beads, metal, loincloth...)
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