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This standing female <em>nkisi mihasi</em>, or “benevolent” power figure, has been carved in light wood and exhibits many of the typical traits associated with the Luba Shankadi style, and more specifically, with the Mwanza center of production. These features include its disproportionately large, ovoid face, half open coffeebean-like eyes, wide mouth with full lips, triangular nose, high, convex forehead, cascading coiffure, protruding umbilicus, and, diamond-shaped tattoos carved in relief on the belly and in horizontal lines on the lower back and upper thighs. The figure stands with slightly flexed knees and with its arms bent at the elbows such that its palms rest upon the breasts, a pose commonly seen throughout Luba figural depictions of women.
Luba (Luba (culture or style))
Power Figure
1875 – 1885
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.215
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