Substantial and Interestingly Carved African Loango Coast, Angola, Ivory Tusk
A Substantial and Interestingly Carved African Loango Coast, Angola, Ivory Tusk
Depicting carefully detailed figures in period dress including a colonial woman with a pet dog on a lead and a man chasing two monkeys with human faces
Circa 1880 – 1890
Size: 80 cm long – 31½ ins long
Depicting carefully detailed figures in period dress including a colonial woman with a pet dog on a lead and a man chasing two monkeys with human faces
Circa 1880 – 1890
Size: 80 cm long – 31½ ins long
From about 1830 to 1900 around the mouth of the Zaire River along the Loango Coast, Kongo artists produced numerous ivory carvings for foreign consumption; of all of these the most impressive are the relief carved ivory tusks which range in size from 8 inches to 3 feet. The vignettes are always carved within a spiral band and it is thought that this acts as a ground line for the procession of figures seen in profile. This spiraling pattern had a long history in the Kongo region and may perhaps allude to the path that the people believe the dead follow from earth to the ancestral realm and back again to be reborn.
Substantial and Interestingly Carved African Loango Coast, Angola, Ivory Tusk
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