Online catalogue for the 60th tribal art auction
283 Standing male ancestor figure
D. R. Congo, Basikasingo
wood, blackish brown patina, flat legs with thorn-like protruding knees, the bulky trunk with tapering belly enclosed by clamp-like arranged arms in flat relief, the head carved with a triangular face with elongated chin, slightly dam., cracks (breast), minor missing parts, traces of insect caused damage (bottom of the base), paint rubbed off; for quite a long time the Basikasingo were equated with the Bembe. First through the works of Biebuyck they got back their identity: they are not related with the Bembe, they just inhabit the same territory at the western river bank of Lake Tanganjika. The Basikasingo have rites for ancestors, who have the power to cause disease and misfortune. If a mischief happened, people tried to experience the wishes of the ancestors by interpreting dreams and by sooth saying. They were kept in small shrines under the authority and guardianship of a petty chief, village headman or dominant lineage elder. Sometimes such figures were individually identified ancestors, called "bashumbu".
H: 45,5 cm
H: 17.9 inch
Provenance
Ludwig Bretschneider, Munich, Germany
Literature
Biebuyck, Daniel P., Statuary from the pre-Bembe hunters, Tervuren 1981, p.115
Kerchache, Jacques, Paudrat, Jean-Louis u.a., Die Kunst des Schwarzen Afrika, Freiburg, Basel, Wien 1988, p. 584 f.
Price: 7000 - 12000 €
