H x W x D: 95.7 x 12.2 x 5.1 cm (37 11/16 x 4 13/16 x 2 in.)
Type:
Sculpture
Geography:
Loango coast, Congo
Date:
Late 19th century
Label Text:
This ivory tusk is an unusually fine example of an important tradition of export art. An artist living along the Loango coast in the Congo region almost certainly used iron tools to render, with exquisite detail and lively animation, a series of pictorial sequences in relief that spiral the length of the tusk. Scenes depict aspects of traditional village life--the man climbing a tree to tap liquid for palm wine--and the influences of foreign trade--the man on the finial wearing both a European coat and a ruler's traditional fiber cap.
Description:
The finial of this carved ivory horn depicts a crowned figure that is likely male based on the style of coat and with the gesture of hands resting inside the two front pockets. Fifteen relief-carved vignettes of genre scenes are carved in a spiral that runs form the base up to the top of the tusk. The vignettes depict men and women engaging in a range of activities--hunting, harvesting palm nuts, traveling by canoe and palanquin, engaging in healing or rituals--as well as local flora and fauna. Although the tusk is in stable condition, there are several long cracks running from near the top of the tusk down to about the mid-point. Ivory tusk with a spiral of animals and human figures in low relief, with a figure at the tip of the tusk.
Ivory tusk with a spiral of animals and human figures in low relief, with a figure at the tip of the tusk.
Provenance:
Robert Visser, Dusseldorf, acquired along the Loango coast, c. 1885
Descending in Jansen family collection
Udo Horstmann, Zug, Switzerland
Robert Visser, ca. 1885 to 1937
Jansen family and B. Jansen, grandson of Robert Visser, 1937 to 2007
Udo Horstmann, 2007
Exhibition History:
Treasures 2008, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 9-August 24, 2008
Published References:
Patton, Sharon F. and Bryna Freyer. 2008. Treasures 2008. Washington D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 2-3.
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