Description
A whistle adorned with an nsiba charm representing a couple embracing on a bed. Associated with the Nkisi cult in the Bas-Congo region and related to hunting, these small sculptures called nsiba, found among the Woyo, Sundi, Kongo, Vili, Yombe, but also the Bwendé or Lumbu, consist of the handle of a whistle with protective powers for hunters. Also found in the paraphernalia of the nganga, healer and diviner, these objects, which could represent a multitude of different scenes or subjects (standing or crouching figures, animals, maternities, mating scenes or masks), also had therapeutic virtues. Generally pierced with a hole at the tip of the antelope horn, which constitutes the hunter's whistle, and enables it to be attached to a cord that connects it and crosses the sculpture, the antelope horn shown here is not necessarily his, although it is pierced, but on the side of its opening. When you look closely at this superb, hitherto unpublished Bakongo nsiba, you can't help but notice that this is art, and conceptual art at that. The couple is looking out at the viewer who is watching them, carved vertically, but the couple is lying on a finely carved wooden bed, horizontally. Like the rebus on woyo taampha lids, the scenes depicted on these whistle handles may represent proverbs implying wisdom. With regard to mating scenes, Bertil Söderberg rightly cites this proverb in his reference article on carved whistles from the Lower Congo: "bana i mbongo" - children are wealth. Woyo, Sundi or Kongo, Democratic Republic of Congo Wood, antelope horn, wear, two minor age cracks, minor accidents at base, superb patina. H. 7.6 cm (without antelope horn) and 16 cm overall. See p. 35 n° 9 for another whistle in the former Arman collection with a rather similar but less detailed mating scene, and p. 25 to 44 for the entire article by Bertil Söderberg translated from English by Raoul Lehuard in: Arts D'Afrique No. 9, Spring 1974. Provenance : Jean Roudillon Collection
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A whistle adorned with an nsiba charm representing a couple embracing on a bed. Associated with the Nkisi cult in the Bas-Congo region and related to hunting, these small sculptures called nsiba, found among the Woyo, Sundi, Kongo, Vili, Yombe, but also the Bwendé or Lumbu, consist of the handle of a whistle with protective powers for hunters. Also found in the paraphernalia of the nganga, healer and diviner, these objects, which could represent a multitude of different scenes or subjects (standing or crouching figures, animals, maternities, mating scenes or masks), also had therapeutic virtues. Generally pierced with a hole at the tip of the antelope horn, which constitutes the hunter's whistle, and enables it to be attached to a cord that connects it and crosses the sculpture, the antelope horn shown here is not necessarily his, although it is pierced, but on the side of its opening. When you look closely at this superb, hitherto unpublished Bakongo nsiba, you can't help but notice that this is art, and conceptual art at that. The couple is looking out at the viewer who is watching them, carved vertically, but the couple is lying on a finely carved wooden bed, horizontally. Like the rebus on woyo taampha lids, the scenes depicted on these whistle handles may represent proverbs implying wisdom. With regard to mating scenes, Bertil Söderberg rightly cites this proverb in his reference article on carved whistles from the Lower Congo: "bana i mbongo" - children are wealth. Woyo, Sundi or Kongo, Democratic Republic of Congo Wood, antelope horn, wear, two minor age cracks, minor accidents at base, superb patina. H. 7.6 cm (without antelope horn) and 16 cm overall. See p. 35 n° 9 for another whistle in the former Arman collection with a rather similar but less detailed mating scene, and p. 25 to 44 for the entire article by Bertil Söderberg translated from English by Raoul Lehuard in: Arts D'Afrique No. 9, Spring 1974. Provenance : Jean Roudillon Collection
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