Yombe - Yombe Female Figure
Height: 11 1/8 inches
Standing on a square base with truncated feet and diminutive legs, supporting a broad flaring and
forward leaning torso with protruding breasts, framed by sloping shoulders and tubular cut-away
arms, her oval head with heart shaped factial plane, open encrusted mouth, small triangular nose
and almond-shaped eyes inset with glass, beneath a tapering headdress, a smoothed fetish mass
insest with a mirrored glass plaque on the back, a lozenge panel with incised cross hatching on the
abdomen, carved bracelets on each wrist, the right wrist also bound in red cloth, the back of the
coiffure decorated with concentric diamonds; encrusted dark brown patina with remains of red and
white pigment.
Provenance: Alain de Monbrison, Paris. Literature: Cornet, 1978, p. 35, fig. 6; Lehuard, 1989,
p. 252, D.7-2-1 illustrated. Exhibited: Raleigh, North Carolina, North Carolina Museum of Art, A
Survey of Zairian Art, the Bronson Collection, April 23-June 4, 1978; Washington DC, Museum of
African Art, July 25- September 25, 1978; Los Angeles, LA County Museum of Natural History,
November 14 1978 - January 21, 1979. As described in Cornet, 1978, p. 35: "Unusually interesting
(referring to present example) are the rounded facial features, the staring glass eyes with black
pupils, and the expression of the half open mouth from which the upper incisors have been removed
as a feature of body decoration. The headdress was very carefully carved, especially in the neck
area. Pendants originally hung from the ears. The entire body has been rubbed with red powder and
white kaolin, and traces of kaolin remain in the grooves. It is difficult to determine what the
woman was carrying, because only fragments of one object remain. The roughly carved lower back was
formerly covered. The back is hollowed out to form a receptacle for fetish materials closed by a
piece of mirror. Thus, the statue was used in rituals."
AA805
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