FIG. 36 (right): Hunter fi gure amulet. Lumbu, Gabon. Wood. H: 9 cm. Ex Paul Guillaume; Stephen Chauvet; Anne and Jacques Kerchache; Ana and Antonio Casanovas. Private collection. Photo courtesy of Ana and Antonio Casanovas. FIG. 37 (above): Female fi gure amulet. Lumbu, Gabon. Wood. H: 9 cm. Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva, inv. 1019-52. © Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva. Photo: Studio Ferrazzini Bouchet. 126 and she carries her baby over her shoulder with a woven strap. Another amulet, which has a particularly serene quality, represents a seated mother with her child on her back, clinging to her chest with both hands. Her helmet-shaped coiffure meets under the chin (fi g. 26).28 A third amulet is a representation of a resplendently beautiful mother, kneeling and breastfeeding her baby, placed atop an openwork element that symbolizes a knotted ring with magical properties (fi g. 33). Three rows of small squares depict scarifi cation and decorate the back from the shoulders to the spine. Another high-quality amulet (fi g. 30), from the same workshop as this maternity fi gure and on a similar openwork element, depicts a drummer, a mythical fi gure who is part of the deity Bunzi’s entourage.29 It has a coiffure without striations made up of two hull-like elements with small bunches of hair at the sides. Other drummers are at the Musée Dapper (fi g. 28) and in the Horstmann Collection (fi g. 31). The example in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen is on a knot decorated with a frieze of small lozenges (fi g. 29). The fi gure wears a small hat or cap with rolled edges, which is also seen on another kneeling amulet that has a twisted band running diagonally from its shoulder to its hip (fi g. 27).30 Some drummer fi gures, with a dark patina, wear the same type of necklace and strap, which is for supporting their instrument. In another kind of amulet, the fi gure is on a ring base. A beautiful drummer fi gure representative of this type is in the FEATURE Malcolm Collection31 and is distinguished by its harmonious pony tail and a large necklace enhanced with lozenge designs (fi g. 32). In another example, the fi gure holds an object in its hands. Its helmet-like coiffure is extremely elegant and its facial features are refi ned (fi g. 35). In addition to these more usual types, the known corpus of Lumbu amulets also includes some especially rare examples. The exceptional object seen in fi gure 36 is one of these.32 It is a representation of a standing man holding an animal and a crooked staff. Another atypical and powerful work, formerly the property of Merton Simpson, is of anthropological interest because it illustrates the cultural practice of human sacrifi ce: A standing father is shown suffocating a little girl adorned with bracelets. She is lying down, extending her arm to him, while the mother is holding back the father’s other arm.33 Another atypical amulet on a halfopenwork element shows two fi gures in a canoe, a woman smoking a pipe and a rower paddling. This object was sold at auction at Sotheby’s in Paris on June 15, 2011 (lot 249), as was another exceptional piece (lot 3) representing a slave seated on a stool atop an openwork element. He is secured at the neck and hands by a twisted length of fi ber called a “Mayombe tree.” A fi nal amulet is a representation of a standing woman with bent legs and a sack on her back (fi g. 37). She has her hands on the tumpline (mukuta) she uses to carry the sack and, like a diadem, it blends into the coiffure. CONCLUSION Composed of ritual fi gures, reliquaries, and amulets, this corpus of masterpieces of Lumbu statuary reveals the prodigious diversity of the art of the Lumbu people, with all of its fi nesse and nuance, as well as the specifi city of its style. Uncertainty concerning the origin of many of these fi gures meant they were often originally attributed to the Punu or Vili, as the descriptions provided by both institutions and private collectors who own many of these works reveal. The cloud of questions surrounding their origin and use that developed during the nineteenth century began to dissipate in 1910. A century after the European discoverers of “art nègre,” we remain fascinated by the elegance of Lumbu statuary, a great, highly refi ned, and “classical” art style. The aesthetics of this art are more than superfi cial; they are an integral part of the Kongo cultural tradition. Acknowledgments I wish to express my gratitude and warmest thanks to Gassia Armenian, Yaëlle Biro, Isabelle Calvache, Ana and Antonio Casanovas, Bernard Dulon, Danielle Dumon, Max Itzikovitz, Paola Ivanov, Christophe Marchetau, Anne-Joëlle Nardin, Diane Pelrine, Sandra Prill, Laura Seidenfeld, and Heinrich Schweizer, as well as to Christian Stenersen for his invaluable help with the meticulous work of editing and proofreading.
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