Luba Female Caryatid Stool, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Pierre Dartevelle, Brussels
Merton D. Simpson, New York, acquired from the above
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired from the above on October 11, 1975

Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, Body Politics: the Female Image in Luba Art and the Sculpture of Alison Saar, November 12, 2000 - May 13, 2001

Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989, Washington, D.C., 1989, p. 441, fig. 1139
Polly Nooter Roberts, Body Politics: the Female Image in Luba Art and the Sculpture of Alison Saar, Los Angeles, 2000, p. 5, p. 40, fig. 49

According to Roberts and Roberts, the Luba were a cluster of "overlapping clan and lineage groupings that were consolidated as kingdoms and important chiefdoms from around the seventeenth century" by the mythical hero, king Kalala Ilunga (Roberts and Roberts, Luba, 2007, p. 7). "Luba political strength lay in an aura of prestige derived from spiritual power and reflected in material and performance arts. Indeed, the arts played a crucial role in Luba political expansion, as kings conferred objects and the ritual practices associated with them to extend their influence into outlying areas" (ibid., p. 9).

Female caryatid stools were part of each Luba king's treasury and the most important emblem of his kingship. Stools figured prominently in royal investiture rites where "the new ruler swore his oath of office and addressed his people for the first time as king" (Roberts and Roberts, Memory, 1996, p. 18, text to cat. 2). The purpose of caryatid stools was, however, not as much functional as it was symbolic. The female figure made reference to the matrilineal dynastic succession.

When a Luba king died his residence was preserved as lieu de mémoire where his spirit was alive and incarnated by a human medium, called mwadi. Objects from the deceased king's royal treasury became objects of devotion and were ritually venerated. Roberts and Roberts note: "The soul of each Luba kingship is literally enshrined in a throne.  When a Luba king died, his royal residence was preserved for posterity as a 'spirit capital'...This site became known as 'kitenta,' or 'seat' – a symbolic seat of remembrance and power, which would continue the king's reign. The king’s stool, a concrete symbol of this larger and more metaphysical 'seat,' expresses the most fundamental precepts of Luba power and dynastic succession" (ibid., p. 17, text to cat. 1) 

The stool from the Silver Collection, collected in situ by Pierre Dartevelle, is of ample proportions and unusual sculptural style.  Prominent scarification rendered in high relief melds with highly stylised and exaggerated anatomical details.  The head presents a face of classic Luba form, with arched eyebrows, and smooth rounded forehead, plucked to the crest.  The openwork four-braided hairstyle is particularly remarkable: of deep volume and great width, the horizontal braid is exaggerated and the vertical braid compressed.  The iconography of the tongue emerging between slightly parted lips is seen in Luba figures of the highest style.  Mary Nooter Roberts suggests that a slightly protruding tongue could be interpreted in Luba culture as an invitation to courtship and an indicator of readiness for marriage.