A fine Yombe maternity figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo
LOT SOLD.
56,250 USD
Details & Cataloguing
The Collection of Frieda and Milton Rosenthal: African and Oceanic Art
|
New York
New York
A fine Yombe maternity figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo
phemba, seated and tenderly supporting the baby with broad hands, the back with raised scarification, the head strongly pitched forward with heavy-lidded eyes inset with glass, and wearing a crested coiffure; handwritten label ('MAYOMBE - R.of Zaire 19 cent - RLKM') on reverse bottom; fine honey brown patina with residue.
height 13 1/8 in. 33.2 cm
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
height 13 1/8 in. 33.2 cm
Provenance
Germaine Rodier, Paris
John J. Klejman, New York
Acquired from the above on January 3, 1975
John J. Klejman, New York
Acquired from the above on January 3, 1975
Literature
Raoul Lehuard, Art Bakongo: Les Centres de Style, Arnouvilles, 1989, p. 582, fig. K 7-1-2
Catalogue Note
The Rosenthal phemba has been classified by Lehuard (vol. II, 1989: 582) as a masterful example of the rare Yombe sub-style K 7. For another figure by the same hand in the Musée Royale de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren see id. (loc. cit., 582, fig. K 7-1-1).
Yombe maternity figures were used in association with women's cults. The iconography of the so-called phemba figures, a cross-legged woman in upright position, holding an infant and facing to the front, has two variants: first, the mother holding a living infant, possibly as a metaphor for the fertility of the people and the land; second, with the mother holding a dead infant as a symbol for the dignity and contemplation of the matriarch.
Suggested Lots
The Collection of Frieda and Milton Rosenthal: African and Oceanic Art
|
New York
New York
