Late 19th century / early 20th century
Wood, glass
28.5 cm
Provenance
Collected in situ, 1915
Former Dr Paul Pastiels Collection, Brussels
Didier Claes, Brussels
Dalton Somaré, Milan
Private Collection, Gallarate
Publications
Phemba : Voix féminines d’aristocrates kongo / Female voices of Kongo aristocrats, exhibition catalogue, TEFAF 2022, Maastricht, Bernard de Grunne, 2022
Exhibitions
Winter Bruneaf, Brussels, 2017
Yombe art and phemba maternity figures
Yombe statuary, belonging to the broader Kongo tradition, represents one of the most intense and naturalistic expressions of African Art in Central Africa.
Maternity figures known as phemba occupy a central role as images of the founding mother of the lineage and as symbols of the continuity of life.
This sculpture presents strong analogies with known examples published by Raul Lehuard in Art Bakongo, including figure K6-1-2 from the Merton Simpson Archive and K6-1-1 from the Brooklyn Museum.
In these examples, as in the present work, the massiveness of the forms and the energy of the attitude emerge clearly.
Gesture and meaning
The position of the right hand, resting with the back on a vessel, is shared with the Brooklyn Museum example and is generally interpreted as an allusion to the mother’s capacity to nourish and support the child.
The female figure is represented while welcoming the newborn seated on her left leg, slightly projected forward, in an attitude suggesting intimacy, protection and direct relationship.
According to the canons of Yombe statuary, the figure wears a characteristic high mitre, a distinctive sign of elevated rank.
The construction of the body is solid and compact, while the face, with massive features, transmits powerful vitality.
The arched eyebrows, heavy eyelids, nose with flared nostrils and fleshy half-open lips, with U-shaped incisors, define an intense and deeply human expression.
The earrings hang from the lobes in different forms, while the neck is adorned with a necklace of large tubular beads alternating with discs.
The scarifications on the chest, shoulders and back are rendered with great precision, helping define the social status and symbolic role of the figure.
Particular attention is devoted to the rendering of the spine and of the belt composed of cowries and beads.
On the lower back appear two knot-shaped scarifications, a recurring motif among Bakongo women.
Function and symbolism
Phemba figures belong to the context of fertility and maternity cults, but their meaning goes further.
They embody the ancestral role of woman as source of life and mediator between the world of the ancestors and that of the living.
