Songye Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Christie's, London, Art and Ethnography from Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Pacific, December 1, 1982, lot 196

Private Collection, London, acquired at the above auction

Sotheby's, New York, May 15, 2003, Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, lot 57, consigned by the above

Philippe Ratton and Daniel Hourdé, Galerie Ratton-Hourdé, Paris, acquired at the above auction

Italian Private Collection, acquired from the above in 2003

Owing to the web of artistic exchanges, movements, and influences which spread across Songye territory in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, geographic attributions based upon style are difficult to make with specificity. The style of this well-designed and finely wrought male or hermaphroditic power statue is of a style which art historians typically give to the basin of the Lomami River, a major tributary of the Congo River. Notable stylistic features include a body of classic Songye proportions carved integrally on a domed plinth, and a tall, exaggerated cylindrical neck. Especially distinctive in the present figure are the enlarged and heavily-lidded eyes, much wider than they are tall, which are turned down at the outside corners and come upwards at the center of the face to meet the bridge of the nose, giving the figure a solemn expression. Grimaced teeth below counterbalance the “sad” eyes, creating an tension between aggression and compassion. The face is richly adorned with metal tacks, set in geometrical array. The coiffure at the back of the head is a particularly satisfying detail of this sculpture, with vertical rows of layered three-dimensional chevrons, made up of flat facets. The facial features of the present figure, particularly in the eyes and mouth, relate to that of a monumental and highly important power figure previously in the collection of Allan Stone which was sold in 2014 (see Sotheby’s New York, The Collection of Allan Stone: African, Pre-Columbian, and American Indian Art, Volume Two, May 16, 2014, lot 67 and shown on catalogue cover).

The scale of this accomplished figure suggests it was used as a community, rather than personal, power figure or Nkisi. Of the power sculptures he observed while visiting Songye territories in 1939, the art historian and anthropologist Hans Himmelheber (1960: 406) stated: "the Nganga Buka, great sorcerers, of which there were only a few among the Songye, have such figures carved by professional sculptors called Sende [or Nsendwe, a smith]. The Nganga then charges them with power to protect the local community, especially to safeguard the birth of children in their territory. All children possibly conceived by invoking the power figure or born while a particular power-figure reigns receive its name. In 1939, a great number of Kalebwe children were called 'Kima' after the power figure Yankima, or 'the Father of Kima'. Once in the world, such a power figure will multiply [...] to such an extent that I found throughout the entire region small Yankima statues. But this continues only as long as this Yankima’s power is intact. After a while he will be replaced by another power figure (with another name and another personality).”

The magical substances and accoutrements which activated the present figure include a bundle of wooden pegs inserted into the umbilicus, nine neatly-strung rows of blue trade beads around the neck, the aforementioned metal tacks, cowries for pupils, and a large bovine horn curving forward from the top of the head, possibly filled with medicine (Bishimba) and allowing the figure to connect to the world of spirits.