Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Luba-style carver / late 1800s-early 1900s
Female Bowl-Bearing Figure (lid)
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Female Bowl-Bearing Figure (lid) as sculpture (Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Luba-style carver · late 1800s-early 1900s).
It is rare for a Luba-style bowl bearer figure to still have its lid.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as Wood and upholstery studs.
The museum's collection notes: This lid is part of a bowl-bearing figure. In Luba-style art, an object's beauty affects how well it works. While bowl-bearing figures had many possible uses, a royal diviner likely used this well-carved image of a woman carrying a bowl in rituals. Dusty traces of mpemba (white chalk) fleck the shining exterior and the bowl's interior, showing it once held this sacred powder. Diamond-shaped scarification marks at her waist, chest, and back add to her beauty. Her hair is carved into the cascading layered hairstyle worn in the Luba region at the turn of the twentieth century. Strands of imported glass beads encircle her waist and neck, and dang
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtFemale Bowl-Bearing Figure (lid)Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.