The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 10, 2024

Bow Stand

Bow Stand

1800s
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.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.27
Location: 108A Sub-Saharan

Description

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.
  • Ex: Belgian Colonial Family
    Dr. Pierre Danhaive, Namur, Belgium
    Christine Valluet, Paris, France
    –2018
    (Dr. William McGuire, Minnesota, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2018–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Debbaut, Jan, Dominique Favart, and G. van Geertruyen. Utotombo: l'art d'Afrique noire dans les collections privées belges : Société des Expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles, 25 mars-5 juin 1988. Bruxelles: Palais des beaux-arts, 1988.
    Neyt, François. Luba: to the sources of the Zaire. Paris: Musée Dapper, 1994.
    Volper, Julien “Étude Iconologique d’un Porte-Flèche Masculin,” Afrique: Archéologie & Arts, 4 (2006). pp. 77-82
    Ugochukwu-Smooth, Nzewi. "Acquisitions 2018: African Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 59, no. 2 (March/April 2019): 8-9. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 8.
    Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth. “Acquisitions 2018: African Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 59, no. 2 (March/April 2019): 8-9. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 8.
  • African art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20, 2019-October 5, 2020).
    Luba, aux Sources du Zaïre, Musée Dapper, Paris (25 November 1993-17 April 1994).
    Utotombo: l'art d'Afrique Noire dans les Collections Privées Belges, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (25 March-5 June, 1988).
  • {{cite web|title=Bow Stand|url=false|author=|year=1800s|access-date=10 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.27