Hauteur : 63 cm. (24⁷⁄₈ in.)

Collection Laure-Marie (1927-2017) et Daniel P. Biebuyck (1925-2019), Newton (Massachusetts)
Transmis par descendance

Biebuyck, D., « Mumbira: Musical Instruments of a Nyanga Initiation » in African Arts, Los Angeles, 1974, vol. VII, n° 4, pp. 42-43

NYANGA FIGURE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

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Lot Essay

« En 1955, j’ai reçu deux sculptures mumbira au village de Myanga, de la part de deux membres âgés de la communauté locale descendant des Bangara. […] Ces sculptures sont des monoxyles de bois sculptés dans une espèce de bois clair (bukombo), noircis et entièrement ornés de larges lignes blanches, de pois rouges […], à l’exception de la protubérance semblable à une queue. Il y a peu d’exemples de sculptures de la sorte provenant de cette partie d’Afrique, tant par leur forme que par leur sens. »

“In 1955 in the village of Myanga, I received two mumbira sculptures from the two senior members of the local Bangara descent group. […] The sculptures are monoxyle carvings in light wood (bukombo-species) blackened and completely adorned, except on the tail-like ex-crescence, with rows of large white and red dots and circles. […] Stylistically speaking there are few, if any, examples of this kind of carving that come to mind for this part of Africa where composite carvings, ambiguous in representational form and in content, are rare.”

Biebuyck, D., « Mumbira: Musical Instruments of a Nyanga Initiation » in African Arts, Los Angeles, 1974, vol. VII, n° 4, pp. 42-43