198 - Kongo (Bakongo) sculpture, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kongo (Bakongo) sculpture, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The particularly distinctive iconography of this sculpture depicts a relationship of domination between two figures of deliberately contrasting proportions. The main figure, wearing a cap with geometric decoration that may suggest a symbol of social distinction, exerts physical control over the secondary figure, whose head it grasps and whose body it holds. This expressive gesture can be linked to representations of authority, power, and hierarchical relationships in Kongo artistic traditions, where the depiction of subordinate figures sometimes serves to affirm the status of a notable or a chief. The treatment of the scene finds echoes, in particular, in certain commemorative sculptures from Lower Congo. This unusual composition lends the work particular iconographic and ethnographic significance. Light wood with a nuanced reddish-brown patina, showing signs of wear and surfaces that appear to have been polished in the past. Height: 40 cm