Chokwe Chief's Throne, Angola
height 32 3/4in.(83cm)
probably Moxico school, strung with skin and carved throughout with numerous figures and masks; around the hemispherical chair legs is a bar, the front of which is decorated with a circumcision scene showing three figures carved in high relief; the forelegs are designed as female caryatids; on the bar a kneeling chief dressed with the fringed belt cikapa and wearing a cihongo mask; the side bars decorated with the reliefs of two antelopes or two fishes; carved on the bars a half-figure, a kneeling, a crouching and a standing figure; the reverse bar decorated with the relief of six turtles; on the bar two standing birds; on the reverse chair legs a female and male figure leaning; the crossbar of the back depicts the relief of a cihongo mask, flanked by another mask and by two antelope's horns; on the braces of the back are two kneeling female figures; the braces and crosswise bar of the back are decorated with carved linear motifs.
Provenance:
Private European Collection
Similar thrones can be found in the Museo de Etnologia in Lisbon, illustrated in Instituto de Investicacao Cientifica Tropical, Escultura Africana em Portugal, Lisbon (1885: fig. 127) and in the Danial and Marian Malcolm Collection, illustrated in LaGamma, Alisa, Echoing Images, (2004: fig. 37)
