Standing male figure ·  D. R. Congo, Tabwa / Rungu · ID: 3035816

Description

heavy wood, matt middle brown patina, schematized body, paddle-shaped hands clumsy amalgamated with the hips, simplified facial features, the eyes framed by concentrical grooves, slightly dam., missing parts (both feet), rep. (breakage), cracks partly spread with mass (back, head), small traces of insect caused damage (back), abrasion of paint, base;
Tabwa sculpture found its sources in two worlds, Luba to the west and north and Azania to the east and south. From the Luba they borrowed clan ancestor figures, sometimes in pairs, and kept in special shrines. Present figure might well have been the male part of such a couple.