Half figure "munsinju", around 1920 · D. R. Congo, Kasongo · ID: 3048312
sold
EUR 1,100
Provenance
Marc Leo Felix, Brussels, Belgium (field collected)Fred Jahn, Munich, Germany
Thomas Olbricht, Essen, Germany (1996)
Size
H: 16,5 cm
H: 6.5 inch
Description
wood, fabric, kaolin, base
This half-figure was collected in the field by Mark Leo Felix (inventory no. “FC4 393”). In his standard work “100 Peoples of Zaire and their Sculpture” (Brussels, 1987), it serves as a model for the type of “munsinju” half-figures of the Kasongo (p. 53, Fig. 3).
The figure shows traces of ritual use and still carries its magical charge wrapped in cloth in its head. “Munsiniju” were the property of the medicine men “muganga”.
A stylistically very similar figure from the Kabalo region, possibly from the same workshop, published in AHDRC 0017759.