AFRICA HEMBA WOOD SINGITI FIGURE OF ANCESTRAL CHIEF

拍品描述

Central Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Hemba culture, Ca. late 19th to early 20th century AD. >A carved wooden singiti (posthumous commemorative portrait) mounted on a circular plinth, made to honour a leader within a chiefdom. The sculpture draws attention to the oversized head, which is regarded as the seat of intelligence and perception, and to the abdomen/umbilical area as the locus of connection to extended lineage. Singiti were traditionally kept with inherited ancestral portraits in a private family shrine. Such figures were understood as divinely authorised commissions, prompted when a ruling chief received a dream visitation from an ancestor and the message was taken as a mandate to create a portrait in that predecessor's memory. > >Size: 280mm x 60mm; Weight: 485g >Provenance: Private UK Collection; ex Private Boulder, Colorado, USA collection.> >

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