FEATURE
124
FIG. 13 (right):
Staff.
Luba, DR Congo.
Wood, pigment, copper, iron. H: 111 cm.
Ex White Fathers, Antwerp (by 1937);
Adriaan Claerhout, Antwerp (1961 to
2000); Sotheby’s, Paris (June 24, 2015;
lot 60).
Private collection.
Photo: © Sotheby’s.
Staffs of offi ce were held by the new ruler
as he swore his oath to offi ce. Charged by
ritual specialists with metal and medicine,
such staffs also assumed supernatural
qualities and therapeutic capacities. In
addition to other purposes, royal staffs
primarily served as historical documents
that could be read and decoded like a
sculptural map.
FIG. 14 (far right):
Sketch by Frans M. Olbrechts
of the ex-White Fathers, ex–
Claerhout Luba staff.
MAS | Museum aan de Stroom, Antwerp.
© Collectiebeleid Musea en Erfgoed,
Antwerp.
FIG. 11 (above):
Double vessel.
Wongo or Leele, DR Congo.
Wood, pigment, copper. H: 19.4 cm.
Ex Jos Walscharts, Antwerp (by 1937);
Julius Carlebach, New York (by 1956);
Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York (1956),
on loan to the Museum of Primitive Art,
New York (1956 to 1978).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York (1979.206.33), The Michael C.
Rockefeller Memorial Collection, bequest
of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979.
Photo: © The Metropolitan Museum of
Art / Art Resource, New York.
Used for wine made from the raffi a
palm tree, a sweet and mildly alcoholic
beverage exclusive to men, an
elaborately carved drinking cup with
anthropomorphic decoration was most
likely intended to express the wealth
and accomplishments of its owner and
was used on more stately or exclusive
occasions.
FIG. 12 (left):
Sketch by Frans M. Olbrechts
of the ex-Walscharts Wongo/
Leele double vessel currently
in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art.
MAS | Museum aan de Stroom, Antwerp.
© Collectiebeleid Musea en Erfgoed,
Antwerp.
from storage for that occasion was a delicate
and extremely rare anthropomorphic double
cup that they attributed to the Leele (fi g. 11). In
my 2001 catalog entry on a similar cup from the
collection of Marc Leo Felix, I suggested that
the shape of the scarifi cation patterns rather indicates
a Wongo attribution (Petridis 2001: cat.
31). The truth is that both Leele and Wongo are
believed to have created such vessels. Whatever
its origin may be, the object genre—with its
unusual iconography that merges “functionality,
design, and refi ned carving,” to quote the
Metropolitan’s online documentation—was
shared by a number of related peoples and bore
similar connotations of rank and prestige. Such
cups held wine made from the raffi a palm tree,
a sweet and mildly alcoholic beverage that was
and still is greatly appreciated by men throughout
Central Africa at both routine and ceremonial
gatherings. It is fair to assume that such an
elaborately carved drinking cup with an anthropomorphic
decoration was intended to express
the wealth and accomplishments of its owner
and was most likely used on more stately or exclusive
occasions.