AFRICAN RELIQUARY "NIOMBO"

These large figures were manufactured starting from the body of the deceased who makes up the central core, wrapped in vegetable fibers. Some reconstructions can be admired in the ethnographic museum of Stockholm and in the Georg Baselitz's collection of African arts. Traditionally, the sculptor finished the NIOMBO painting the original tattoos of the deceased and some other ideograms on the chest of the puppet, real messages for the afterlife. Congo, Bwende ethnicity. First half of the 20th century. Height: 160 cm.