id: 168750 accession number: 2010.454 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.454 updated: 2023-03-20 10:12:25.059000 Female Bowl-Bearing Figure, late 1800s-early 1900s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Luba-style carver. Wood, glass beads, upholstery studs, plant fiber, and iron; overall: 40.8 x 16.1 x 27.3 cm (16 1/16 x 6 5/16 x 10 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2010.454 title: Female Bowl-Bearing Figure title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: late 1800s-early 1900s creation date earliest: 1880 creation date latest: 1920 current location: 108A Sub-Saharan creditline: René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund copyright: --- culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Luba-style carver technique: Wood, glass beads, upholstery studs, plant fiber, and iron department: African Art collection: African Art type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 40.8 x 16.1 x 27.3 cm (16 1/16 x 6 5/16 x 10 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Tentoonstelling van Kongo-Kunst opening date: 1937-12-24T05:00:00 Tentoonstelling van Kongo-Kunst. Stad Stedelijke Feestzaal. title: Frans M. Olbrechts (1899-1958): In Search of Art in Africa opening date: 2001-12-07T05:00:00 Frans M. Olbrechts (1899-1958): In Search of Art in Africa. Ethnographic Museum (December 7, 2001-March 31, 2002). title: Fragments of the Invisible: The Rene and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture opening date: 2013-10-27T00:00:00 Fragments of the Invisible: The Rene and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 27, 2013-February 9, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Frans M. Olbrechts (1899-1958): In Search of Art in Africa. Ethnographic Museum, Antwerp, BE (December 7, 2001-March 31, 2002) * Tentoonstelling van Kongo-Kunst. Stad Stedelijke Feestzaal, Antwerp, BE (December 24, 1937-January 16, 1938) --- PROVENANCE Gaston Heenen [1880-1963], Brussels, BE, sold to Hendrik Elias date: ?–1939 footnotes: citations: (Hendrik Elias [b. 1925], Galerie Elmar, Wieze, BE, sold to René and Odette Delenne) date: 1939–1968 footnotes: citations: René [1901-1998] and Odette Delenne [1925-2012], Brussels, BE, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1968–2010 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2010– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Symbolic of anvils, the round metal tacks decorating the figure's hair "pin" spirits and their secrets within it. They are at the hairline and each of the four hair cascades (the bottommost is now gone). digital description: 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 dangle from her hair. The alternating white and blue beads may symbolize the moon and Mbidi Kiluwe, a culture hero linked to royal practice and smithing. While much Luba-style art depicts women—who are societally important—men created and owned the majority of such works. wall description: This bowl-bearing figure functioned as an oracle for a royal diviner who used it to reveal the origin of problems brought to his attention. The diviner would dispense to his patient a mixture of medicinal substances and chalk from the bowl. This sculpture also served to protect and heal the local village as a whole. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Antwerpen, Stad Stedelijke Feestzaal, and Antwerpsche Propagandaweken. Tentoonstelling van Kongo-Kunst, cat. 669. Exh. Cat. Antwerp: Antwerpsche Propagandaweken, December 24, 1937-January 16, 1938. page number: Mentioned: cat. 669. url: Olbrechts, Frans M. Plastiek van Kongo. Antwerp/Brussels/Ghent/Leuven: Standaards-Boekhandel, 1946. page number: Reproduced: pl. 108 url: Olbrechets, Frans M., Constantine Petridis, and Daniel P. Biebuyck. Frans M. Olbrechts (1899-1958): In Search of Art in Africa, cat. 53. Exh. Cat. Antwerp: Ethnographic Museum, December 7, 2001-March 31, 2002. page number: Reproduced and mentioned: [p. 165] cat. 53 url: Petridis, Constantine. "René and Odette Delenne." In Tribal Art XV-4, no. 61 (Autumn 2011): 119. page number: Reproduced: p. 119, fig. 4; mentioned: p. 122 url: Petridis, Constantine, et al. Fragments of the Invisible: The René and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art. Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2013, 30, 79, 82-83, 108. page number: Mentioned: pp. 30, 79-80, 108, 114 ; reproduced: p. 82-83, cat. 26 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterworks on Loan: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Cleveland Museum of Art: First Quarter 2016. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. page number: Reproduced p. 16 url: Petridis, Constantine. "Inscriptions: Establishing a Pre-1937 Acquisition Date for 1,525 Central African Sculptures." Tribal: The Magazine of Tribal Art XXIV: 4, no. 85 (Autumn, 2017): 127, 130-131. page number: p. 127, p. 130 color repr., p. 131 sketch url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2010.454/2010.454_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2010.454/2010.454_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2010.454/2010.454_full.tif