130
FIG. 20 (left): Bowl-bearing
fi gure.
Luba, DR Congo.
Wood, pigment, glass beads, copper
alloy, iron, plant fi ber, thread.
H: 40.8 cm.
Ex Gaston Heenen, Brussels (by
1937); Hendrik Elias, Ghent and
Wieze, Belgium (by 1968); René
and Odette Delenne, Brussels (1968
to 2010).
The Cleveland Museum of Art, René
and Odette Delenne Collection,
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
(2010.454).
Photo: Gary Kirchenbauer. © The
Cleveland Museum of Art.
The lunar symbolism that is
alluded to in striated Luba masks
like the famous one in the Seattle
Art Museum illustrated earlier
also infuses the well-known
Luba sculptural genre of female
bowl-bearing fi gures. The white
chalk with which their bowls are or
were fi lled is associated with the
assistance offered by the spirits and
the enlightenment provided by the
light of the moon. Used in royal
divination practices at Luba courts
in order to discern the causes of
problems and prescribe remedies,
the fi gures are identifi ed as
representing the wife of the diviner’s
possessing spirit or even the fi rst
diviner of the Luba kingdom’s epic in
the guise of a woman.