Luba Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Friedrich Wield, Hamburg, reportedly acquired by 1928

Lore Kegel, Hamburg, acquired from the above by 1940

Boris Kegel-Konietzko, Hamburg, acquired by descent from the above

Pierre Dartevelle, Brussels, acquired from the above

Edith and Guillaume Vranken-Hoet, Brussels, acquired from the above in 1991

François Neyt, Luba. Aux sources du Zaïre, Paris, 1993, p. 148

Constantine Petridis, Art and Power in the Central African Savanna: Luba, Songye, Chokwe, Luluwa, Brussels and Cleveland, 2008, pp. 46-47, cat. no. 23

François Neyt, ed., Fleuve Congo. Arts d'Afrique Centrale, correspondances et mutations des formes, Paris, 2010, p. 363, cat. no. 242

Valérie Dartevelle and Valentine Plisnier, Pierre Dartevelle et les arts premiers. Mémoire et continuité, Milan, 2021, vol. II, p. 362, fig. 469

Constantine Petridis, ed., The Language of Beauty in African Art, Chicago, 2022, p. 238, cat. no. 209

The Menil Collection, Houston, Art and Power in the Central African Savanna: Luba, Songye, Chokwe, Luluwa, September 26, 2008 - January 4, 2009; additional venues: The Cleveland Museum of Art, September 26, 2008 - January 4, 2009; M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, June 27 - October 11, 2009

Musée du quai Branly, Paris, Fleuve Congo. Arts d'Afrique Centrale, correspondances et mutations des formes, June 22 - October 3, 2010

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, The Language of Beauty in African Art, April 3 - July 31, 2022; additional venue: the Art Institute of Chicago, November 22, 2022 - February 27, 2023

The central Congo region was home to some of Africa's greatest kingdoms, where some of the continent's most accomplished arts were developed. To the east, in the provinces of Kasaï, Katanga and southern Kivu, live the Luba. They have developed a so-called royal art of the court, linked to the centralization of power. Local religious, magical and divinatory traditions blend with the aristocratic sphere and its hierarchy. The female statue in the Vranken-Hoet Collection is part of this royal context and embodies the primordial role played by women in the royal circle and in society. As Robert and Roberts have shown, even though the Luba system of filiation was patrilineal, the origin and intensity of the sovereign's political and spiritual power was transmitted to him by his mother.¹ Women held sacred and hidden authority, while men retained tangible authority. They played “decisive roles in alliance-building, decision-making, inheritance disputes and investiture rituals. More importantly, the memories and spirits of deceased kings were once embodied by women [...]. The Mwadi (of the deceased king) assumed his role and then served as an important spiritual medium”.²

The female figure is omnipresent in Luba statuary, and the delicate way in which the hands are placed on the breasts underlines the nurturing function of women. While the precise functions of these statues are still unknown, references to religious practices are known, and François Neyt has compiled a list of the various elements of the “witch diviner”.³

A prerogative of royalty and probably used in ritual contexts, the Luba statue of the Vranken-Hoet Collection exemplifies “classical” Luba art through the style and beauty of its sculpture, and reflects the talent of the region's artists. She adopts a posture well known in Luba female statuary, with her hands resting on her breasts and a characteristic network of scarification marks. In these respects she calls to mind a Luba statue from the collections of the Comtesse de Witt and another from the collection of Daniel and Marian Malcolm, both of which were sold at Sotheby's in 2016, in Paris and New York respectively.

The Luba figure from the Vranken-Hoet Collection is also imbued with a feeling of serenity conveyed by the expression of the face, while the forward projection and slight forward inclination of the sculpture soften the hieratic nature of the volumes. A masterpiece of its kind, it embodies the eternal qualities that Luba statuary imposed on neighboring cultures and, more latterly, on a western audience.

¹ Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History, New York, 1996, p. 212 and p. 214

² ibid., p. 54

³ François Neyt, Luba. Aux sources du Zaïre, Paris, 1993, p. 158