id: 171076 accession number: 2013.5 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2013.5 updated: 2023-08-24 01:01:31.842000 Woman's Skirt, late 1800s–about 1906–12. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mbuun-style weavers and embroiderers. Raffia palm fiber (Raphia ruffia or R. vinifera) and dye; overall: 73.7 x 102.9 cm (29 x 40 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Alma Kroeger Fund 2013.5 title: Woman's Skirt title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: late 1800s–about 1906–12 creation date earliest: 1875 creation date latest: 1917 current location: creditline: Alma Kroeger Fund copyright: --- culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mbuun-style weavers and embroiderers technique: Raffia palm fiber (Raphia ruffia or R. vinifera) and dye department: African Art collection: African Art type: Garment find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 73.7 x 102.9 cm (29 x 40 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: African art rotation opening date: 2018-03-05T05:00:00 African art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 5, 2018-February 19, 2019). title: Stories From Storage opening date: 2021-02-07T05:00:00 Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Emile Lejeune by field collection in the Belgian Congo date: collected c. 1896-1906 footnotes: citations: Lejeune family by descent date: ?-until 2011 footnotes: citations: (Andres Moraga Textile Art, San Francisco, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: 2013 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2013- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The diamond motifs on this skirt have symbolic and cosmological links to lizards (mbil), an animal associated with matrilineal (female descent) clans. digital description: Mbuun men wove and embroidered wrap skirts like this for women to wear on special occasions. Gently color-shifted patterns (lubawa) along the central panels were achieved by “floating” wefts (selectively covering over vertical, or warp, threads with horizontal, or weft, threads). In contrast, various black-brown embroidered diamonds cover the borders. These are called lobubasa, motifs also seen on cicatrices (ornamental scars) that once beautified women’s bodies. Short tufts running horizontally and vertically across the textile were created by inserting extra fibers, then cutting and fluffing them with a knife. These add texture and hide the seams between woven panels. wall description: This female skirt or hip wrapper is the most extravagant textile of the Mbuun people of the Kwilu-Kwango River Basin. Its overall tan surface is from raffia fiber. It also features elegant geometric surface decoration called lobubasa: the diamond-shaped patterns embroidered on the upper and lower part of the textile with dyed fiber and through the center where the panels that form the textile converge. As a prestige cloth it most likely was only worn on special occasions such as burials or for ceremonial functions. Although it is a women's cloth, it is woven by men, a norm shared by neighboring cultures such as the Kuba and the Kongo, which have similarly rich textile traditions. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Picton, John, and John Mack. African Textiles. London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1989. page number: p.199-200 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 41 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2013.5/2013.5_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2013.5/2013.5_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2013.5/2013.5_full.tif