Kota Reliquary Figure, Gabon

Kota Reliquary Figure, Gabon

Alain de Monbrison, Paris
Private Collection, California, acquired from the above in 1983

Very good condition for an object of this type and age. Marks, nicks, scratches, abrasions, small cracks, and minor chips consistent with age and use. Metal plates with scratches, minor dents, bends, and some splits consistent with age. Metal tarnished and lightly polished. Binding to bottom part probably covering surface losses, most likely a later addition. Fine aged glossy patina on reverse with encrustations. Fixed to modern base with pin in underside.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Kota reliquary figures have become icons of world art, and are today instantly familiar to Western viewers. The basic elements of this tradition are distinctive and do not exist elsewhere in Africa; carved in wood, the human head is rendered with graphic geometrical shapes in a flattened, mostly two-dimensional form, rising vertically on an integrally carved cylindrical neck above an open lozenge. The front of the sculpture is covered with an arrangement of flattened metal attachments in varying colors. No two figures are entirely identical, but the tradition conforms to certain basic canons, which in the minds and hands of Kota artists, were subject to an astonishing diversity of formal improvisation, reduction, embellishment, and invention.

The present figure is of unusually strong architecture and bold expression: large dome-shaped eyes punctuate the mouthless face, which is rendered in an elegant convex heart-shape circumscribed from brows to chin. A sharp central ridge divides the face vertically, running down the forehead into a blade-shaped nose, the line tapering outward in a triangular section running into the chin. The artist has arranged fields of multiple colors of copper and brass with great success, most strikingly with an orange copper-colored field providing the backdrop for the dramatic circular eyes.

Within the Kota corpus, attempts to attribute to a sub-style, region, or atelier is difficult and can be paradoxical if based upon individual attributes. The present figure relates quite closely in the style of the heart-shaped face to a figure from the collection of the Musée Dapper, as well as to one face of a janus example sold at Sotheby's, Paris, June 21, 2017, lot 74. In contrast to the Dapper example, the present figure and the janus bear the classic transverse crescent coiffure and fanning side-coiffures with cylindrical pendants.

The iconographic designs of Kota figures reference the faces and indeed the skulls of those whose sacra they watched over. The surfaces of copper and brass—as highly valued as gold in nineteenth century Gabon—were kept gleaming by repeated sand polishing, and evoked the sparkling surface of a body of water, beyond or beneath which was the world of the deceased. For their creators, these sculptures embodied a mystical conduit between the living and the dead.