Maternity figure, Pende (Kasai); D.R.C. Congo
Wood, remains of pigment; H. 31 1/2"
Decorating a Great Chief's kibulu
ritual house, roof finials as well as figural carvings
in the courtyard featuring a woman marked the high
rank of the house's owner and his role as defender
and protector of his people. This example, rotted
below the knees from having been inserted in the
ground in a chief's courtyard, would represent either
the chief's mother or wife. Executed in a soft,
naturalistic style, it certainly pre-dates the eastern
Pende large-scale manufacture of such objects in
the 1950s. The serene and beautifully rendered expression
of the mother's face is in stark contrast to her
roughly blocked hands and may indicate the work
of more than one carver. Another example, published
in a Sotheby's (Sotheby's: 1997) catalogue, has
a body virtually identical to this yet a face rendered
in a completely different style of carving (though
still within the eastern Pende tradition).
