Christies June 2025 sale - Paris Yombe Maternity Lot 27
As you will note below, this Yombe maternity sold for over a million euros. There was no condition report; however, one could plainly see a substantial crack extending down the proper left side of the figure. Is the crack stable? Is the proper left breast restored?. Has the surface been altered? Are there any other restorations? Hard copy catalog entries in great detail are expensive. Online catalog entries are not. Clearly Christies is a great promoter of their catalogs and the property they offer for sale. It seems obvious that they have determined that condition reports will not be an issue for buyers. In the past contact information was provided for each lot to request condition reports. This is not being done now.
Details
Statue Kongo-Yombé attribuée au « Maître de Kasadi »
République démocratique du Congo
Hauteur : 29.5 cm. (11 5⁄8 in.)
Provenance
Collection Frits Van den Berghe (1883-1939), Gand, acquis entre 1928-1937
Luisa Muller-Vanisterbeek, Bruxelles, acquis ca. 1959
Roberta et Lance Entwistle, Londres, acquis ca. 1988
Collection Albert Nehama, Paris-Genève
De Pury & Luxembourg Art, Genève
Collection Hilde (1926-2012) et Dieter (1926-2001) Scharf, Hambourg, acquis auprès de ces derniers en 1997
Literature
Olbrechts, F., Tentoonstelling van Kongo-Kunst, Anvers, 1938, n° 392
Olbrechts, F., Westersche Invloed op de Inheemsche Kunst in Afrika?, Bruxelles, 1942, pp. 37 et 43, n° XI
Olbrechts, F., Les arts plastiques du Congo belge - Plastiek van Kongo, Anvers, 1946, p. 140, n° 13
Olbrechts, F., Les arts plastiques du Congo belge - Plastiek van Kongo, Anvers, 1959, p. 143, n° 13
Lehuard, R., Les phemba du Mayombe, Arnouville, 1977, p. 58, n° 13
Guimiot, P. et Velde, L. van de, Arts premiers d'Afrique Noire - Oerkunsten van zwart Afrika, Bruxelles, 1977, pp. 126 et 127, n° 87
Fouchet, M.-P. et al., La maternité dans les arts premiers - Het moederschap in de primitieve kunsten, Bruxelles, 1977, pp. 60 et 61, n° 48
Bassani, E., « Due grandi artisti Yombe. Il ‘Maestro della maternità Roselli-Lorenzini’ e il ‘Maestro della maternità de Briey », in Critica d'arte africana, Florence, juillet-septembre 1981, vol. 46, n° 178, n° 17
Povey, J. et al., « Publicité Entwistle - Entwistle Advertisement », in African Arts, Los Angeles, février 1988, vol. XXI, n° 2, plat verso
Lehuard, R., Art bakongo. Les centres de style, Arnouville, 1989, vol. II, p. 460, n° J-1-1-3
Heymer, K. et Thompson, J., Sehen lernen. Eine Sammlung afrikanischer Figuren, Cologne, 1999, pp. 102 et 103, n° 40
Grunne, B. de, Mains de Maîtres. À la découverte des sculptures d'Afrique - Masterhands. Afrikaanse beeldhouwers in de kijker, Amsterdam, 2001, p. 173, n° 46
Rochard, P. et al., Figuren Afrikas. Meisterwerke einer Privatsammlung, Ingelheim-sur-le-Rhin, 2002, pp. 104 et 105, n° 37
Zerbini, L., L'ABCdaire des arts africains, Paris, 2002, p. 54
Listri, M., Art africain - African Art - Afrikanische kunst - Arte africano - Arte africana - Afrikaanse kunst, Florence, 2011, pp. 439, 440 et 441
LaGamma, A. et al., Kongo. Power and Majesty, New York, 2015, pp. 184 et 185, n° 124
Bolz, F., Art africain - African Art - Afrikanische kunst - Arte africano - Arte africana - Afrikaanse kunst, Paris, 2018, p. 212
Grunne, B. de, Kongo Phemba, Bruxelles, 2022, pp. 128 et 129, n° 63
Exhibited
Anvers, Stadsfeestzaal, Tentoonstelling van Kongo-Kunst, 24 décembre 1937 - 16 janvier 1938
Bruxelles, Crédit Communal de Belgique, Centre Culturel, Arts premiers d'Afrique Noire - Oerkunsten van zwart Afrika, 5 mars - 17 avril 1977
Bruxelles, Société Générale de Banque, La maternité dans les arts premiers - Het moederschap in de primitieve kunsten, 13 mai - 30 juin 1977
Bruxelles, BBL Cultuurcentrum, Mains de Maîtres. À la découverte des sculptures d'Afrique - Masterhands. Afrikaanse beeldhouwers in de kijker, 22 mars - 24 juin 2001
Ingelheim-sur-le-Rhin, Altes Rathaus, Figuren Afrikas. Meisterwerke einer Privatsammlung, 28 avril - 7 juillet 2002
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kongo. Power and Majesty, 18 septembre 2015 - 3 janvier 2016
Further details
Kongo-Yombe Figure attributed to the "Master of Kasadi", Democratic Republic of the Congo
Lot Essay - Bernard DeGrunne
Meet the genetrix Van den Berghe, portrait of a Kongo aristocrat
by Bernard de Grunne
This sumptuous Kongo maternity figure, originating from the collection of the Ghent expressionist painter Frits Van den Berghe, has been attributed to one of the finest Kongo sculptors: the “Master of Kasadi”. He lived in the village of the same name, located about ten kilometers south of Tshela in the Kongo kingdom. Father Léo Bittremieux (1880-1946) acquired a magnificent maternity figure and a mask there, both now in the collections of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. The works of this Kongo artist - certainly a virtuoso - are characterized by extremely precise and masterfully controlled forms, and by a realism pushed to its peak, especially in the rendering of the face. The typical features, both delicate and stern, include circular, pierced pupils; prominent cheekbones; slightly sunken cheeks; a strong chin; a half-open mouth with beautiful lips and worn-down teeth; and exquisitely stylized ears. The symmetrical, balanced composition adheres almost perfectly to the four classical Vitruvian principles of ordinatio, dispositio, eurythmia, and symmetria.
During the 2001 exhibition Mains de Maîtres. À la découverte des sculptures d'Afrique held in Brussels, the gathering of three maternity figures by the “Master of Kasadi” - including one from the Scharf collection - highlighted the formal unity in the works of this great artist, to whom Bassani confidently attributed six maternity figures1.
The immense talent of the “Master of Kasadi”, regarded as one of the greatest Kongo sculptors, was recognized early on. In fact, one of his statues from the Royal Museum for Central Africa (acquired by Count de Briey between 1911 and 1913) was published as early as 19292. Frans Olbrechts also understood the importance of this artist by including that statue in his landmark exhibition Tentoonstelling van Kongo Kunst in Antwerp in 19373. The date and place of Van den Berghe's acquisition of the maternity figure are unknown, but it likely occurred between 1928 and 1937. Indeed, six other superb Congolese sculptures from his collection - excluding the maternity figure - were published as early as 19284. This maternity figure was first exhibited in 1942 in Antwerp. It’s assumed that Van den Berghe purchased it between 1928 and 1937, before selling it to collectors Paul and Luisa Muller-Vanisterbeek in 1946. There were few active Belgian art dealers before the war. Among them were Henri Pareyn, Jeanne Walschot, Gustave Dehondt, Raoul Blondiau, and François Poncelet. It is plausible that Van den Berghe acquired the maternity figure from François Poncelet, who had sold two others superb Phemba figures to the Brooklyn Museum in 19225.
A compelling hypothesis suggests that the flourishing of so-called Phemba maternity figures was connected to a cult celebrating fertility, large progeny, and motherhood - developed between 1840 and 1900 in response to the stress caused by droughts, famines, diseases, and a sharp decline in birth rates6.
The Scharf maternity is the only one - along with the one from my father's collection - to display a certain patina of ritual use, while the other four present a polished surface with no signs of use. I was able to uncover a crucial, previously unpublished detail about the use of Phemba figures. According to information communicated to Father Bittremieux regarding the statuette in the Royal Museum for Central Africa, it represented the mother of a ritual officiant and diviner. During ceremonial dances held for young girls, the celebrant would carry the Phemba figure wrapped in a special cloth used for carrying infants. During the dance, he would hand the figure to the girls, who were initially too frightened to look at the wooden fetish - until one of them would whisper: “Tuala Mama Phemba give me Madam Phemba so that I may carry her in the baby cloth”. The girl would then hold the figure on her knees or carry it like a child, while the diviner, whirling like a possessed man, stirred up a spirit of competition among the girls, all eager to cradle the beautiful Phemba7.
The iconography of the child lying still on the woman’s lap, legs bent and hands joined as if asleep, reminds us of the symbolism found in the works of great Western painters such as Raphael who often depicted the infant Jesus with the face of an adult, portraying him as a puer senex (“old child”), a poetic way to symbolize divine wisdom.
From the dawn of artistic creation - with the Venus of Willendorf (24,000-22,000 B.C.) - to the Nana figures of Niki de Saint Phalle (1960s-70s), the representation of women has been a favorite subject across many civilizations, honoring their fertility, beauty, sensuality, and divinity. The Phemba figures of the Yombe rank among the most remarkable and admired icons in the imaginary museum of world sculpture. An artist as gifted as the “Master of Kasadi” always infused his subjects with personal and original choices, while still respecting the canons of the Yombe tradition demonstrating, to the highest degree, a singular formal approach. As they say, behind every masterpiece there is always the man who created it.
