Power Figure (Nkisi N’Kondi: Mangaaka). Kongo peoples; Yombe group, Chiloango River region, Cabinda, Angola, 19th century, inventoried 1898. Wood, iron, resin, ceramic, plant fiber, textile, cowrie shell, animal hide and hair, pigment,
H. 461⁄2 in. (118 cm), W. 181⁄8 in. (46 cm), D. 133⁄4 in. (35 cm).
Manchester Museum, University of Manchester (0.9321/1)
‘Kongo: Power and Majesty’ at the Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum presents ‘Kongo: Power and Majesty’, an exhibition aimed at radically redefining our understanding of Africa’s relationship with the West. September 18, 2015 – January 3, 2016.]]>
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Nearly a decade before Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World, the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão disembarked along the coast of modern day Angola. This turning point in world history brought about significant exchanges of material culture across the Atlantic. Cão commemorated his arrival in 1483, as an emissary for King Joặo II of Portugal, by marking the site with a limestone monument that had been carved in Lisbon. That limestone landmark now marks visitors’ entry into “Kongo: Power and Majesty”.
Among the earliest African artifacts preserved in the West are prestige items created by Kongo artists who were active in a series of distinct polities positioned across a region that spans what is today northern Republic of the Congo, Angola, and southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. In addition to the celebrated state known as Kongo, the exhibition considers its less well-known culturally related regional neighbors such as the Kingdom of Loango. The Kingdom of Kongo’s elite embraced literacy from the earliest moment of contact, and the survival of their writings on religious and political matters set the kingdom apart, making it one of the best documented pre-colonial African states. Featured in the exhibition are 16th- and 17th-century missives from Kongo sovereigns to their European counterparts, affording a critical African perspective on world events.
From the same period —and a focal point of “Kongo: Power and Majesty”— are the creations of regional artists that were prized for their refined workmanship and rarified materials. These exotic ivories, inscribed with delicate geometric designs, and woven raffia fiber textiles adorned with related abstract motifs, entered into the collections of European princes and wealthy merchants from the 16th through the 18th century. Most of these, including a series of ivory oliphants believed to have entered the Medici collections under Giovanni de’ Medici (1475–1521) (Pope Leo X), appear to have been sent by Kongo leaders as diplomatic gifts. The scope of this little-known Kongo pre-colonial corpus has never before been presented in an exhibition. “Kongo: Power and Majesty” introduces a critical mass of these exquisite, rarely displayed works that are dispersed internationally. Among the celebrated and prestigious historical collections lending to the exhibition are the Royal Kunstkammer of King Frederick III of Denmark in Copenhagen, the Württemberg Kunstkammer in Stuttgart, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II’s Prague Castle collections, and Queen Christina of Sweden’s Royal Collection, Stockholm.
For the first time, Kongo masterpieces brings to life a critical chapter of Central African history that precedes colonialism by some 400 years. These early Kongo creations attest to the exceptional complexity of Kongo artistry predating contact with Europe as well as the degree to which its most talented practitioners immediately embraced the ensuing influx of ideas introduced from the outside.
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