Songye Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Dr. and Mrs. Ernest Drucker, New York, by 1969
Allan Stone, New York

Ithaca College Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York, The Innovative African Sculptor, November 11 - December 21, 1969; additional venue:
The Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, February 15 - March 15, 1970
The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, Power Incarnate: Allan Stone's Collection of Sculpture from the Congo, May 14 - September 4, 2011

George Nelson Preston, The Innovative African Sculptor, Ithaca, 1969, p. 45, cat. 94
Martha Schwendener, "Ritual Power, Gathered at the Bruce", The New York Times, July 10, 2011, p. CT10
Kevin D. Dumouchelle, Power Incarnate: Allan Stone's Collection of Sculpture from the Congo, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2011, p. 61, cat. 38
Jonathan Fogel, "Power Sculpture from the Congo", Tribal Arts Magazine, No. 60, Summer 2011, p. 39

This bold figure is of a rare style of Songye sculptures with distinctive necks made up of plump rounded rings, including one which was collectied by Gaston Heenen by 1925 (see Neyt 2004: 183, fig. 148).  In addition to a number of morphological similarities, including squared chins, triangular noses, and cowrie eyes, these examples share in common a reddish-orange coloration, as seen in the present example.  A unique characteristic of the figure from the collection of Allan Stone is the unusual position of the lower body, in which the figure appears to be kneeling although the haunches do not rest on the feet.  Interestingly, the soles of the feet are turned upwards in a configuration often seen in Luba sculptures such as bowl-bearing figures and caryatid stools (see for example Nooter Roberts and Roberts 1996: 152, cat 59).