Memorial figure

Description

wood, shellac coating, depicted without arms, well-balanced forms of the body, elaborate carved facial features with teeth deformation, high towering headdress of a notable, drillings in the eyes referrring to the fact that they originally were provided with mirror glass or porcelain plating, slightly dam., crack (backside), missing part (base), paint rubbed off;
present figure was not created as a magical figure (“nkisi”), because it lacks any openings or attachments for insertion of magical substances. It even not belongs to the type of the so-called “niongi” figures, which were placed on ancestral shrines of important persons, because they are always larger in size and moreover they are always painted with red and white pigment, alike the bodies of the deceased themselves. Instead present figure rather represents a memorial figure of an important ancestor, who was especially venerated. Such sculptures were kept in a basket together with further relics belonging to the kinship. They were displayed in masquerades marking big events within the village.