LUBA Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) h... Lot 22

LUBA Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) h 46 cm Male figure. Medium dense wood with light patina. Iron tack on the base Work previously not displayed. This depicts a male figure, who holds a vessel for magic substances in his hands. He is standing in an upright position on a circular base. His head is larger than the other parts of his body. The thick, cylindrical neck, as in almost all Luba and Hemba works depicting males, has no Adam’s apple. The face has a high brow, rounded cheeks, a hooked nose with flared nostrils, a pointed chin, protruding lips, large spherical eyes, a hairstyle with four tufts of hair, the central of which is thicker than the remaining smaller three, separated from each other, which is an unusual and rare style. The surface of the wood is covered with a light, natural glaze, which contains a whiteish mixture in the cracks of the muscles. The beard is a made of a strip that is marked by rhomboid shapes. A clasp with palmettes (diadem) is engraved on its broad brow. In realty, its function was to support the complex hairstyle like a clasp. These are all elements that bear witness to the high-ranking status of the character, which is reflected in the works of the so-called “Scuola di Buli”. PROVENANCE * Collection of Walter Schwab, Bern (inv. WS 471) (1999); # An old label stuck to the base reads: “St. P. C. Sodalitat, Fribourg 1913 n° 10620” which corresponds to the Saint Peter Claver Missionary Society, Co-operative Fribourg (Switzerland) A second label reads: “Luba Chief, Buli” NOTE Lot not located at Finarte offices but in Switzerland. It could be subject to customs costs related to the importation into the buyer’s country. In any event, any customs cost and/or burden related to importation shall be borne by the buyer. For more information, please write an email to arteafricana@finarte.it LITERATURE CORNET JOSEPH, Art de l’Afrique noire au pays de fleuve Zaire, Bruxelles 1972, fig. 117 , 43 cm, Tervuren R.G. 14358 (109); NEYT FRANCOIS & DE STRYCKER LOUIS, Approche des arts Hemba, Villiers-le Bel, France 1975 (49) NOOTER MARY ROBERTS & ALLEN F. ROBERTS, LUBA, Five Continent Edition, Milano 2007 (1102); ESTIMATE UPON REQUEST