STORIES IN IVORY 127 FIG. 18 (top): Detail of a tusk with a character bent backward to fit under the spiral. National Museums of World Cultures, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam. TM A-11085. Artis donation, 1920. FIG. 19 (above): Detail of a tusk with a character bent backward to fit under the spiral. National Museums of World Cultures, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam. TM 1788-13. Acquired from G. Rambonnet-de Bloeme, 1948. FIG. 20 (below): Photo postcard showing an ivory dealer. National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden. RMV A294-16. or commission prized utilitarian objects to be made from it. The rest of the population generally had the same types of objects but made of less costly materials, such as wood or metal. Ivory was used to make a limited number of decorative objects, the best known of which are carved horns, ornamental finials for the tops of scepters, knife handles, fly whisk handles, hair decorations, and bracelets. Loango ivories were never observed among local elites,20 but these did own elephant tusks that they displayed in large numbers when they performed public functions—rendering judgment, for example. Tusks have also been found in funerary monuments erected for highranking individuals (Stanley, 1878 II: 272). But despite ivory’s importance as a status symbol, for African populations it was not itself the object of the hunt. Elephants were traditionally hunted as a source of food. High-ranking individuals obtained the tusks that were the byproduct of this process through a complex and very strict system of tribute laws, which obliged their subjects to offer them at least one tusk for every elephant that was killed. The same was true of hippopotamus tusks. These animals were also hunted for their meat, even more often than elephants since they were considered a delicacy. Their tusks were less highly valued in Loango, and they were only occasionally carved (fig. 12). With the permanent settlement of Europeans in the Congo region, the ivory market took on an entirely different dimension. A great deal of money had been invested in European industries that used ivory in large quantities, most notably for the manufacture of piano keys, billiard balls, and as a medium for the creations of European artists. Beyond its use as a raw material, museum expeditions often had a particular interest in acquiring African ivory sculptures. After each “discovery” of a new culture, its ivory objects were often sold soon after the expedition arrived. Some expedition accounts even specifically mention cases in which the Westerners were not able to get all of the ivory objects in an area because not everyone was willing to part with their possessions. Lang and Chapin encountered a high-ranking Mangbetu individual who was resolutely indisposed to relinquishing his ivory objects to them, although he did order his artists to make copies of the objects they desired (Schildkrout and Keim, 1990a: 65). Preliminary Data for a Stylistic Analysis Ivory sculptors along the Loango coast observed the market and adapted to demand, churning out the most sought-after objects and designs indefinitely. As has been noted above, most scenes depicted on tusks illustrate specific subjects such as daily life, commerce, hunting, local flora and fauna, and slavery, as well as Europeans (colonial administrators, travelers, merchants, missionaries, and soldiers) and the various characteristics of their presence. Most tusks illustrate aspects of economic exchange between Africans and Europeans, including importation by caravan, the transport of elephant tusks, and the movement of products (figs. 14 and 15). Such scenes are noteworthy for their level of detail as well as for the efforts toward realism in the rendering of people and animals. This is particularly apparent in the depiction of faces, hair, ornaments, and apparel, for example. Nonetheless, it is not always easy to distinguish between Europeans and Africans, and the people depicted often display mixed morphological details. Moreover, details in clothing can also be confusing, as Africans are sometimes shown in European apparel (or vice versa), or the clothing occasionally combines garments of both apparel styles. There can be a number of explanations for this. It was common for an African on the coast to dress in European style. The opposite was not as common, but it was nonetheless not unusual to encounter Europeans wearing European hats and vests but African loincloths (fig. 15 and the second scene from the top in fig. 4). Sometimes Europeans can be recognized in clothes that were specific to their function, like certain missionaries or traders in their typical tropical outfits. Human figures are almost always represented in profile except at the top of the object, where there is generally a figure sculpted in the round. As far as the number of representations on a piece is concerned, Loango sculptors followed a golden rule: The value of the tusk increased as a function of the number of figures on it, so the
Layout1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above