Lumbu Statuary 123 FIG. 27 (right): Amulet. Lumbu, Gabon. Wood. H: 11.5 cm. Ex Africarium collection; Bernard and Bertrand Bottet, Nice. Private collection. Photo courtesy of Christie’s. © Christie’s. FIG. 26 (above): Mother-and-child amulet. Punu-Lumbu, Gabon. Wood. H: 11 cm. Ex Jean Roudillon; Max Itzikovitz; Ana and Antonio Casanovas. Private collection, Paris. Photo courtesy of Ana and Antonio Casanovas. FIG. 25 (above): Motherand child amulet. Punu- Lumbu, Gabon. Wood. H: 12.2 cm. Ex Charles Ratton, Paris, before 1950; Donald Morris Gallery, Detroit and New York, 1996. Acquired with funds from the Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program. Photo © National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. Photo: Franko Khoury. FIG. 24 (right): Amulet. Lumbu, Gabon. Wood. H: 10.8 cm. Max Itzikovitz Collection. Photo © Brigitte Cavanagh. face (fi g. 20).23 The red colors the bust and the face, and a large blue stripe is at navel height, with more on the upper arms and on the nipples. The latter treatment is also apparent of a reliquary formerly in the Kuhn Collection24 and on two other examples from an important French private collection. Several heads and reliquary busts in this same collection (fi g. 21) show the use of blue to emphasize the kodia coiffure. This spiral coiffure, called lumbu lua Kasa- Vubu, was adopted during the struggle for independence, when women arranged their hair in the kodia shape as a symbol of life and the Kongo genesis.25 All of these sculptures share a red-ochre inverted triangle on the forehead, a feature they also share with royal Galoa masks. The red triangle, a male insignia, and the blue color on the forehead are also seen on a superb full fi gure standing atop a shaft (fi g. 22). Its gender is not apparent but its right arm is raised in the well-known Kongo gesture, and it has an impressive head with a visor coiffure in white, red, and blue, surmounted by a red tail feather of a gray parrot. The shoulders are massive and its forehead overhangs its large half-moon eyes inlaid with pieces of glass. Four cavities for charges are located behind the head, around the neck, on the upper left arm, and on the right wrist. Zoomorphic Statuary While less numerous than representations of women, Lumbu statues of animals are also known. The example shown in fi gure 23 represents a chimpanzee (nziku), a big brother to man, who, according to tradition, inhabits the forest and embodies notions of power and strength. The concave face is painted blue, as are the ears, and there is a red triangle on the forehead. Pieces of glass represent the rounded eyes, which have large black pupils, and the forward-projecting open mouth is colored red. This type of exceptional statue, with its powerfully curved body, symbolizes the Tchimpwatufi clan. A myth related by Luc de Heusch indicates that the chimpanzee is the brother of the deity Bunzi.26 “Portable Idols” Lumbu amulets (muswinga), often called “portable idols,”27 measure between 10 and 15 centimeters in height and belong to nganga healer-diviners and ndotchi sorcerers. They are usually made of wood and most often represent women but may also represent men (fi g. 24). Some fi gures are rendered standing but most are seated or kneeling, generally situated atop an openwork or ring-shaped base. Three representative amulets in our corpus illustrate the maternity theme. One has rounded shapes (fi g. 25): The mother is standing, her hair in a large chignon that comes to a point; she is adorned with annulated bracelets and necklaces;
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