Statue - Luba - DR Congo (No reserve price)

Ritual statuette depicting a male ancestor. The head, with rounded, streamlined shapes, features a broad forehead that extends up to the crown. The eyes, half-closed, are set in circular orbits emphasizing the eyebrows, while the aquiline nose appears slightly flattened. The lips, finely drawn, are delicately outlined.

The face is framed with a balance between a beard collar made of two rows of carved lozenges and a diadem that supports a quadrilobed coiffure, the movement of which extends to the nape. The neck is sturdy, the shoulders straight. The chest, slightly convex, stretches toward the abdomen. The arms, bent and detached from the body, rest with the hands on the hips.

The back is marked by a hollowed spine and protruding shoulder blades, while the buttocks are rounded. The lower limbs, massive and bent, terminate in finely sculpted feet.

These sculptures, kept in funerary huts, were objects of cult: they served as a link between the world of the living and that of the ancestors, perpetuating their memory and contributing to the balance of the lineage, ensuring a certain political stability within the clan.

Made of hard wood, this work presents a beautiful dark and glossy patina, testifying to the ritual anointings it regularly received.