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Descripción : Songye Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo nkisi height 17in (43.5cm) Provenance Norman Hurst Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts Canadian Private Collection According the Daniel Biebuyck, 'The term by which the Songye designate their magical figures - nkisi (pl. mankisi) - is encountered elsewhere in widely dispersed parts of central Africa. In southern Zambia, for instance, it is used by the Mbunda for their masks. Equally, it is used among the Kongo on the Atlantic coast as a generic term with a wide range of reference: included here, however, are the magical figures that the Kongo too create. Nkisi, then, is a 'key word' deeply embedded in many different Bantu languages. Taken as a whole it becomes virtually untranslatable by reason of the very diversity of objects, substances and activities that it serves to designate. What all the various usages have in common, however, is that they serve to comprise the assemblage of objects and entities whose efficacy and capacity to influence the affairs of the living depend upon some external agency, usually identified with spirits or ancestors. Among the Songye it is only magical figures that are identified as mankisi...There are two kinds of nkisi. One, which is much smaller in scale (and by far the more numerous), is personal in application and ownership: restricted to individuals or, at most, to households or nuclear families. [. . .] The efficacy of mankisi has several sources. Most important are the many different types of substance and paraphernalia applied to the figures. Most of these are regarded as inherently powerful or aggressive - substances as parts of lions, leopards, snakes, bees and birds of prey; the sexual organs of crocodiles and earth from the tracks of elephants; human elements taken from such exceptional categories of person as suicides, sorcerers, epileptics or twins. Items of regalia may also festoon the figure, recalling the typical attributes of chiefly dress or of the hunter. The figures themselves are always male and have a combination of characteristics that constitute a generalised reference to ancestors.' (Phillips, Tom (ed), African - Art of a Continent, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1995, p. 283) The present nkisi has been carved by an artist able to master dynamic angularity through movement of lines and volumes within sculpture. Fluttered with metal shards on the crown, the oversized head, with a cavity on the top which would have supported a horn, appears in proportion to the whole. The prominent nose adds structure to the facial elements including the eyes, large and rounded, which slant downwards, and a mouth with crescent-form lower lip. The jaw line is angular and slopes downwards, protruding far beyond the long, thick and formidable neck. The shoulders are squared and arched slightly back, allowing the biceps to reach back and bend forward at the elbows providing space necessary to accentuate the curvature of the torso which arches back and bulges in the front to house the power nest in the abdomen. The buttocks are rounded and flared out, resting on foreshortened legs with muscular calves and hips that are aligned with the slope of the chin line. The feet are large and hang over the rounded base. The dark brown patina shows wear and signs of age throughout. For further information on this lot please visit the website
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