African Arts Gallery

This African statue in carved wood depicts a naked subject. Its headdress highlights the elongation of the skull, typical of Mangbetu dignitaries, which a compression of the head from a young age gradually deformed.
Light beige patina, chips and cracks, old restoration (foot).
The elders called beli the anthropomorphic figures embodying ancestors, stored out of sight, and comparable to those belonging to their secret society nebeli. Light beige patina, missing parts. The Mangebetu kingdom, in the north of the Congo, produced architectural works that impressed European visitors in the 19th century. Their furniture, weapons, finery and statuary were marked by a rare aesthetic quality. The ethnologist G.A. Schweinfurth described its symmetry and refinement in 1870, while at the same time testifying to the ritual murders and human sacrifices practiced by "the people of the elongated heads".