Songye Community Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Possibly Jacques Hautelet, La Jolla
Allan Stone, New York

The feet of this richly-adorned Songye figure are contiguous with the lid of a cylindrical hide-covered container made of thick bark, a form which seems to be unique in the Songye corpus.  This undoubtedly had a ritual function, and was possibly used to contain magical materials or divination paraphernalia.  The entire body of the figure itself is also covered in hide, and from the face emerge six long tufts of goat hair.  Densely stacked beaded necklaces cover the neck, and the eyes are represented with protruding copper irises.  Stylistically this relates to the group of figures apparently emanating from a workshop or circle of carvers which include one previously also in the collection of Allan Stone (see Sotheby's, New York, November 15, 2014, lot 131), one in the collection of the artist Armand Arman (Loudmer-Poulain, December 18, 1972, lot 106); another previously in the collections of Gaston de Havenon and Andreas and Kathrin Lindner (Sotheby's, Paris, June 8, 2007, lot 250; also published by Neyt 2004: 193, fig. 158bis); and another previously in the Silberman Collection (Sotheby's, New York, May 17, 2007, lot 150).