Description:
frontal piece with large head, hairdo of topknot and side pieces faced in patterned brass, facial decoration includes copper eyes and patterned segments, body consists of diamond shaped wood
Label Text:
Wealthy families would commission a Mbulu Ngulu to honor deceased family members. The figures would have been placed in a secure location, such as a corner of a home or a private enclosure, where the shiny copper and brass surface would have activated any available light.
Mbulu Ngulu were guardian figures, often used to top a closed basket containing ancestral remains, marking the remains as sacred. When Gabonese people were forced to convert to Christianity during the colonial period, they stopped making these figures, which conflicted with the Christian use of reliquaries for the remains of saints. From about the 1930s onwards, these were only being made as export sculptures for European collectors.
Cecilia Sahlman Smiley, Smith class of 1950, and her husband, Irwin, purchased this figure from Herbert Baker. Baker had bought it from Belgian art dealer Philippe Guimiot, who began collecting African art in 1958 while he was working in Gabon. Therefore, it is difficult to know how old this particular Mbulu Ngulu is and whether it was originally made for export or local use.
Susan E. Kart '96, Assistant Professor of the Arts of Africa, Lehigh University (2018)
Tags:
religion Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2000.12.4 |
