2-728-536 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Female Figurine, late 1800s-early 1900s. This female figurine may be a fragment of a spoon or spatula, but this claim cannot be confirmed. Although the iconography of the human image is not uncommon in the art of the Yombe and related Kongo-speaking peoples, it does not reveal the object's function or purpose. The position of the arms has been interpreted as that of a bound prisoner while the head, tilted horizontally or at an angle, represents a broken neck or even a severed head, thus identifying the prisoner as a sacrificial victim. Yet, despite the large quantity of Yombe- and Kongo-attributed works in collections, as well as the vast body of literature on the subject, their culture, history, and art, many questions remain unanswered and our knowledge continues to be fragmented and superficial.