Luluwa sculpture: mukendi figures, proportions and treatment of the body
The male Mukendi or Mukenge figure documented in the Dalton Somaré archive dates to the second half of the nineteenth century. Carved in wood with a reddish powder patina, it measures 35 centimetres. Its history includes the collections of Paul Timmermans, Merton D. Simpson, Martin Lerner and Patrick Caput, as well as publication in the Pace Primitive catalogue of 2003. These records allow the figure’s construction and documentary history to be studied together.
The slender body and slightly arched torso organise a vertical composition in which the abdomen marks a clear transition between the chest and the lower body. Examining the proportions helps distinguish the overall rhythm from the treatment of individual parts. The curve of the torso introduces a direction of movement; the continuity of the volumes maintains the figure’s unity. The reddish surface accompanies this modelling and belongs to the work’s material history.
In Luluwa sculpture, the treatment of the body also involves the elaboration of scarification. Incised and raised patterns should be examined in relation to the anatomical surface on which they appear: they can articulate a bodily area, emphasise its volume or introduce a different rhythm. This observation calls for comparisons between specific works, since the tradition encompasses different formal solutions and a complex history of bodily practices.
The Metropolitan Museum’s female Bwanga bwa bwimpe figure, accession 1979.206.37, provides a comparison for the importance assigned to bodily decoration. Its museum record connects Luluwa figures with protection, beauty and ancestral relationships, distinguishing uses associated with motherhood. Comparison with the male figure therefore concerns proportions, surfaces and workmanship, preserving the identity of each work and its documented context.
Constantine Petridis’s essay A Figure for Cibola, published in the Metropolitan Museum Journal in 2001, provides a reference for further study of art, politics and aesthetics among the Luluwa. The Dalton Somaré example is also published in Scultura. Arte dell’Africa, 2009, and L’Africa delle Meraviglie, 2010. Analysis grounded in these records makes it possible to follow the work’s history and compare its sculptural language with a documented corpus, while retaining attention to its particular construction of the body.
References and comparative works
Constantine Petridis, A Figure for Cibola, The Metropolitan Museum Journal, 36, 2001
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bwanga bwa bwimpe, 1979.206.37
Dalton Somaré, Scultura. Arte dell’Africa, 2009, pp. 79–80
Works in the Gallery
Male Mukendi or Mukenge figure, Luluwa
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