An ancient and imposing polychrome mbumba bwiti reliquary fi - Lot 213

An ancient and imposing polychrome mbumba bwiti reliquary figure, with large eyes set with glass strips characteristic of this corpus, wearing the ancient mitooki hairstyle with an axial stripe and in four braided plaits, plaits here sculpted with openwork. It should also be noted that it is part of a workshop style center where the sculptors treated the chins in a flattened manner like the two previous reliquary figures and also the following one. She is still adorned with her earrings. For mbumba with comparable openwork headdresses, see : Lumbu, a Sacred Art, Gourcuff-Gradenigo ed. and Galerie Bernard Dulon, 2016, figs. 84, 97, 99, or 105. Lumbu, Gabon Wood, glass, pigments, resin remnants, earrings, important oxidation of age, visible accidents and lack, very beautiful and old patina of use. H. Height : 43 cm Provenance : Jacques Viault Collection.