Kota-Obamba Reliquary Guardian Figure, Gabon

Louis Perrois, the scholar of the art of Gabon, has remarked upon the “classicism” of this type of Kota reliquary figure, which he attributes to the Kota-Obamba or -Ndumu, and which “have been found since the end of the nineteenth century in the upper Ogooué area” (Louis Perrois, Kota, Milan, 2012, p. 60).

This “classicism” is illustrated here by the formal rigour of the composition. The concave, oval face has vertical and horizontal axes composed of plates of brass, which are surrounded by copper strips arranged in diagonal and horizontal lines that draw one’s eye to the centre of the sculpture, where the features are placed, with a triangular nose and horizontal crescent eyes executed in high relief. The crimped edges of the copper strips create the appearance of raised bands, which again draw the eye inwards. The crowning crescent and the curved “cheeks”, or abaa, are encased in brass plates with striated bands around most of the perimeter, with a double band of lozenge motifs at the base of the cheeks, a design that is reprised in the band that encircles the neck. The artist has exploited the chromatic qualities of contrasting different metals, with two strips of iron forming “tears” that run diagonally down from beneath either eye, and a spiral copper pendant beneath either cheek.

Alisa LaGamma writes of the appeal to Kota patrons of “the reflective properties of the metal surface. […] The constantly changing effect of shimmering light on the polished metal surface was evocative of the play of light on water. This was an especially appropriate quality given that the ancestral realm was conceived of as a body of water.” (Alisa LaGamma, ed., Eternal Ancestors: The Art of the Central African Reliquary, New York, 2007, p. 110).

For a similar Kota-Obamba sculpture, see the example once in the Frank Crowninshield collection and sold at Sotheby’s, New York, The Collection of Edwin and Cherie Silver, November 13, 2017, lot 23.