Songye Community Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Pierre Dartevelle, Brussels, 1970s
Nadya Levi, Antwerp
Peter Wengraf, London, by 1976
Allan Stone, New York

Kevin D. Dumouchelle, Power Incarnate: Allan Stone's Collection of Sculpture from the Congo, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2011, p. 42, cat. 19

Arcade Gallery (adv.), African Arts, vol. IX, no. 2, January 1976, p. 49
Arcade Gallery (adv.), African Arts, vol. IX, no. 3, April 1976, p. 56 
Christie's, New York, Selections from the Allan Stone Collection, November 12, 2007, cover
Kevin D. Dumouchelle, Power Incarnate: Allan Stone's Collection of Sculpture from the Congo, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2011, p. 55, cat. 32

The highly refined sculptural quality of this large-scale Songye figure is the work of an experienced master sculptor.  Fleshy, naturalistic details merge with the traditional Songye formal principles to create a charmingly feisty, corpulent power statue.  The massive head is balanced by an equally massive belly; facial features and details such as the ankle-bones have been meticulously described.  A crown of metal blades surrounding a huge buffalo horn is heavily encrusted with ritually-added material.  The belly opens into a large cavern for the insertion of magical charge material, bishimba, and numerous other circular openings also packed with bishimba are distributed throughout the figure.  Metal pegs, nails, tacks, and blades have been inserted into the shoulders, arms, and abdomens, reminiscent of Kongo ritual practice.  The remains of wasps nests in crevices suggest that the figure sat outdoors before its collection, and in testimony to the original condition of this figure, have not been removed.