Figure – Wood – Hungana – Congo DRC

Statuettes and statues are rarely encountered in African Hungaan (or Hungana) art.
It would seem that some were used by soothsayers and placed in the huts for a protective purpose while the largest – ancestral figures of the clan – were placed on altars with the skulls of the deceased.
They are characterized, as here, by a tripartite hairstyle, the thick patina, the gesture of the hands brought to the mouth or to the chin.

Provenance: former private collection from Germany.