Maternité "phemba", before 1920 ·  D. R. Congo, Yombe · ID: 3053640

Description

light wood, pigments, handwritten collection reference “Congo”, a continuous circular bore running from the top to the base

A piece from the same workshop or by the same artist was in the collection of Baron Eduard von der Heydt; it is illustrated in Eckart von Sydow’s “Kunst der Naturvölker” (Art of Primitive Peoples), published in 1932. (AHDRC 0017934)

These mother-child representations are known throughout the Congo as “phemba”. They are considered to be the homage of the primordial mother, the guardian of fertility, but at the same time reminiscent of transitoriness, the eternal cycle of life and death.

She is equipped with elaborate scarifications, arm rings, loincloth, typical hairstyle and filed incisors. All attributes that are reserved in Congo society only for persons of high rank and title.

Comparing literature

von Sydow, Eckart, Kunst der Naturvölker, Sammlung Baron Eduard von der Heydt, Berlin 1932, p. 60f