A fine and rare Eastern Mambila male and female janiform figure

of overall dynamic and sophisticated conception, the janiform figure of a male and female, each of similar form and carved from a single piece of wood, the broad feet firmly planted and supporting the muscular bowed legs leading to the full hips, the male with pendant phallus and the female with visible pudendum, the arms bent and framing each abdomen, the male with a central row of raised dentil scarification, the female with rounded breasts framed by scarification, the hunched shoulders leading to the tall necks with raised scarification and supporting the adorsed spherical heads, the male with a thin and long pendant beard, each with similar animated expressions with open mouths and small, telescopic eyes inset into scooped heart-shaped facial planes and framed by ears of similar form, the male wearing a striated, crested coiffure, the woman with shaven head and rest of inserted pegs on the crest; Brill no. 163X; fine, blackened and encrusted patina overall.

Jacques Yankel, Paris
Drouot, Paris, October 18, 1978, lot 52
Acquired from Gerbrand Luttik, Soest (The Netherlands), May 14, 1984

Jacques Yankel (1920-2004) was an artist from Paris, who was influenced by and also collected African art. Works from his collection were shown at the famous exhibition of 1967 held at the  Musée de l'Homme: Arts Primitifs dans les Ateliers d'Artistes.  In this catalogue he expressed his particular dialogue with African art: "Au fond j'aime passionément l'art nègre et chaque style pour ses qualités propres... Je suis sensible au côté esthétique des objets, leur côté insolite aussi. En bref, j'aime surtout les objets sauvages..." [I feel passionately about African art and love each style for its own qualities... I am sensitive to the aesthetic side of things, but also their unusual traits. In short and above all, I love savage objects...] 

This rare figure from the Brill Collection exhibits qualities that are classically Mambila -- the telescopic eyes which are mirrored by similar circular ears emanating from the temples and further enhanced by a scooped, heart-shaped facial plane. The female figure is adorned at the crest with inserted pegs. Moreover, the bowed, muscular legs are distinguished by their broad feet extending beyond the ankle and the angularity of the legs which are counter-balanced by the geometric hips and abdomen. Also, like the best Mambila figures, the patina is charcoal gray with an eggshell layer of encrustation and soot. At the same time, however, this figure shares some qualities of the neighboring Kaka -- the broad chest, strong shoulders and tensely bent, faceted arms held out to the side.

The Mambila live on the northern border of the Cameroon Grassfields and into western Nigeria. The Kaka live in western Cameroon nearby.  While male and female couples are well known within Mambila art, there appears to be only one other recorded example of a janiform male and female figure, collected in 1933 (see Gebauer 1979: 184, Plate 32). However, the Brill janus is unique in that it does not show two merged full figures but instead the male as full with the female as half figure emerging from the back. Within Kaka art, there are no couples known, although they are one of the few groups to create paternity figures, a rare subject.

Kaka works of art in the past have been misattributed to the Keaka. In 1978 when the Brill figure was offered for sale in Paris, it was catalogued as Keaka, for example. To clarify, Harter (1994: 46-47) notes that the Keaka live around Ossing, near the left bank of the Cross River. Keaka art consists primarily of face masks which compare stylistically to the Ibibio idiok ekpo type, not figures. 

Among the Mambila, artistic production centers around the seasonal agrarian cycles and ancestor veneration. The janiform figure in the Brill collection may be the representation of a mythical primordial couple or the first ancestors of a lineage. The emergence of the female from the male body may allude to a creation myth or visually symbolize the interdepedence of the genders. At the same time, it could also suggest fertility of the land and its people.  

Cf. Sotheby's New York, April 21, 1990, lot 140, for a Mambila figure from the Franklin Collection, comparable for the facial plan and the bowed, muscular legs. For examples of Kaka statuary see Harter (ibid.: figures 2, 3 and 4) .