Bow Stand
1800s
Maker Unknown
African Art
Bow Stand, 1800s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Luba-style carver. Wood and plant fiber; without base: 57.9 x 23 x 10 cm (22 13/16 x 9 1/16 x 3 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.27 A powerful symbol of the Luba king, bow stands were ceremonial objects that resided within the king’s private vicinity in the palace and were never displayed in public. Typically, bow stands depict a female figure, but the sculptor has carved a figure with ambiguously gendered human traits. This is a symbolic depiction that may allude to how divine rulers (mulopwe) were believed to have both “male” and “female” character traits, which allowed this sculpture to act as a vessel for spirits of any gender.
- Maker/Artist
- Maker Unknown
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Formatted Medium
- Wood and plant fiber
- Dimensions
- without base: 57.9 x 23 x 10 cm (22 13/16 x 9 1/16 x 3 15/16 in.)
- Departments
- African Art
- Accession Number
- 2018.27
- Credit Line
- Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Exhibitions
- African art rotation, <em>Utotombo: l'art d'Afrique Noire dans les Collections Privées Belges, </em>Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (25 March-5 June, 1988)., <em>Luba, aux Sources du Zaïre, </em>Musée Dapper, Paris (25 November 1993-17 April 1994).
- Rights Statement
- CC0
- Museum Location
- 108A Sub-Saharan
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