Bembe, statuette

Bembe, statuette

Biteki statuette, wood, textile, earthenware
Date
late XIXth
Size
Height 19 cm
Collection
Tribal Art
Condition
Très bon
Inventory number
010
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Female Bembé DRC effigy standing up wearing a loincloth (often missing) she sports abdominal scars in high relief, arms open at right angles and palms facing the sky. Remarkable sculpture modeled classically with delicate proportions 

The conical breasts, the square prognathous characteristic chin. Earthenware eyes

The singularity of this ancestor’s representation, resides in the presence of its original traditional loincloth. 

 

Origin :

  • colected in-situ between 1930 and 1934 by the colonial administrator Alain Lagarde (1905-1976) preserved in the same family ever since.

 

Bibliography :

  • Statuaire BABEMBE sculpture by Raoul Lehuard and Alain Leconte édition des 5 continents page 117 N°58 for a similar statue without its loincloth
  • Note : for a comparison with a statue of the same collection: Sotheby’s sale of the 11th of june 2011 lot N° 92, and see Sotheby’s sale of the 30/11/2010 Paris page 79.
  • And also Sotheby’s Paris 18/06/2014 , page 88,N° 69