A rare and very old female statuette featuring a cascading h - Lot 171

A rare and very old female statuette featuring a cascading hairstyle known as shankadi, an extremely sophisticated hairstyle that came to an end in the late 19th or very early 20th century, depending on the region, and which, with its exceptional patina, confirms the archaism of this sculpture. In 1964, William Fagg and Margaret Plass brought to light a narrow corpus of Luba statuary attributed to the "Master of the Cascading Headdress". Working between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this artist or artists sculpted eighteen neck-rests, a seat and a divination instrument, whose formal virtuosity immediately fascinated Westerners. According to Ezio Bassani's extensive research, this style originated around the village of Kindondja, on the shores of Lake Kisale. This geographical designation was established following a comparative study with a neck rest collected by Ernesto Brissoni, a member of the Public Force in the Belgian colony of Congo, in this village in 1901. This work of reference is now kept at the Museo di Antropologia de Etnografia in Florence (inv. 8312). Very archaic in construction, this very early Luba Shankadi statuette bears witness to the canons allotted to this emblematic style. The volume of the head, with its recessed eyes and the extension of its remarkable fan-shaped or cascading hairstyle, its narrow bust, stretched limbs and dynamic pose suggest that it was sculpted in this region before the emergence of the great masters of the highly sophisticated art of cascading hairstyles. Luba (Shankadi), Democratic Republic of Congo 19th century Wood, one foot slightly missing (old breakage), two old cracks visible on the front, superb, very old patina. H. 27 cm Provenance : Collection of Count Jean-Jacques de Launoit, Brussels Alain de Monbrison, Paris Yann Ferrandin, Paris Collection Béatrice et Patrick Caput, Paris Private collection, Paris Publications and exhibitions: Sotheby's, London, June 21, 1979, no. 203 Christie's, Paris, Intérieurs, January 26 2012, no. 726 Patrick Caput and Valentine Plisnier, Arts d'Afrique. Portraits of a collection, 2016, p.130-131 Giquello, Paris, Collection Béatrice et Patrick Caput, November 15, 2018, no. 34