FEATURE One of the many storerooms at the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale (MRAC) in Tervuren contains more than 4,000 examples of pottery, primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Examples from Rwanda/Burundi and hundreds of other ceramic works from other African countries are housed there as well. This collection, which is unique in the world, was patiently assembled by this Belgian national institution over a period of more than a century through field collecting, donations, and purchase. The spectacle of these endless rows of terracottas is amazing, characterized by exuberant forms, fine incising sometimes highlighted with vegetal or mineral powders, color variations ranging from deepest black to dazzling white, and lovingly crafted wickerwork that often envelops the hardened clay objects. Until now, very little effort has been made to present this collection to the public. While any number of masks and figures from the MRAC have been placed in the limelight at national and international exhibitions, the same cannot be said of the ceramic works that the museum holds. With the exception of a few “star” pieces such as the marbled pottery examples from the Lower Congo, the anthropomorphic pitchers produced by various groups (Kanyok, Luba, Makere, and Mamvu, FIG. 1 (lower left): Marbled pot. Kongo, DR Congo. 12 x 19 cm. Collected by E. Dartevelle around 1948. MRAC, inv. EO.1949.23.10. All images © MRAC. Photos: Jean-Marc Vandyck. FIG. 2 (left): Anthropomorphic pot, kpengu. Mamvu, DR Congo. 26 x 15 cm. Collected before 1930 by Father P. Schebesta. MRAC, inv. EO.0.0.32650. Ceramics of this type (see also FIG. 5), which were made by the Mangbetu and other peoples of the northeastern DRC, began to appear in the Tervuren collection in the 1910s. The Taste of the Earth By Julien Volper The Ceramic Collection of the MRAC 100 among others), or the creations of Woyo artist Voania (figs. 1–4), the collection has largely been ignored. The only work that has really done justice to these objects is a 1907 publication produced by the Annales du Musée du Congo (now the MRAC), the authors of which, E. Coart and A. de Haulleville, were directors of the institution. The work features plates of strong graphic quality (fig. 11) that allow the reader to gain a comprehensive view of the MRAC’s ceramic holdings at the beginning of the twentieth century (figs. 7, 8, and 12). The book’s interest is not restricted to its images. The text contains valuable information on methods of production and firing, on the materials used and
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