"Made of Straw of Rare Beauty": Kongo Textiles in Renaissance European Collections

Interesting blog post on the Kongo textiles at the Met exhibition by British Museum curator Dora Thornton here

“Kongo: Power and Majesty” at the Met.

I already mentioned the show but this important exhibition really is a unique, once in a lifetime, opportunity to view many of the earliest surviving African textiles, drawn together from numerous  museum collections across Europe. A few years ago I went all the way to Ulm to see the cloth below (okay and a couple of others.) Don’t miss it !

Date: 16th–17th century, inventoried 1659

Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo; Angola; Republic of the Congo Culture: Kongo peoples; Kongo Kingdom Medium: Raffia Dimensions: L. 75 9/16 in. (192 cm), H. 59 7/16 in (151 cm) [excluding 5 1/2 in (14 cm) perimeter fringe ] Classification: Textiles-Woven Credit Line: Kunst- und Wunderkammer des Christoph Weickmann, Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany

Note that this astonishingly fine cloth above is almost two metres square – looking at the photos it is too easy to visualize it as the small Kuba squares that we are so familiar with.

 

Luxury Cloth: Cushion Cover

Date: 17th–18th century, inventoried 1737. Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo; Angola; Republic of the Congo Culture: Kongo peoples; Kongo Kingdom. Medium: Raffia Dimensions: 21 1/4 in. (54 cm) × 21 1/4 in. (54 cm)Classification: Textiles-Woven Credit Line: Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen

Prestige Cap (Mpu)

Date: 16th–17th century, inventoried 1674 Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo; Angola; Republic of the Congo Culture: Kongo peoples; Kongo Kingdom Medium: Raffia or pineapple fiber Dimensions: H. 7 1/8 (18 cm), Diam. 5 7/8 in. (15 cm) Classification: Textiles-Non-Woven Credit Line: Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen

 

Prestige Cap (Mpu)

Date: 17th–18th century, inventoried 1876  Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo; Republic of the Congo; Angola Culture: Kongo peoples Medium: Raffia or pineapple fiber Dimensions: H. 8 7/8 in. (22.5 cm), Diam. 6 1/4 in. (15.9 cm) Classification: Textiles-Non-Woven Credit Line: MIBACT-–Polo Museale del Lazio, Museo Preistorico Etnografico Luigi Pigorini, Rome

 

Garment (Nkutu)

Date: 19th century, inventoried 1853 Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo; Angola; Republic of the Congo Culture: Kongo peoples Medium: Raffia. Dimensions: 31 1/8 × 49 1/4 in. (79 × 125 cm) Classification: Textiles-Costumes Credit Line: British Museum, London

 

 

“Kongo: Power and Majesty” at the Met Museum

Kongo

Power and Majesty

September 18, 2015–January 3, 2016

“Central Africa's Kongo civilization is responsible for one of the world's greatest artistic traditions. This international loan exhibition will explore the region's history and culture through 134 of the most inspired creations of Kongo masters from the sixteenth through the early twentieth century.

The earliest of these creations were diplomatic missives sent by Kongo sovereigns to their European counterparts during the Age of Exploration; they took the form of delicately carved ivories and finely woven raffia cloths embellished with abstract geometric patterns. Admired as marvels of human ingenuity, such Kongo works were preserved in princely EuropeanKunstkammer, or cabinets of curiosities, alongside other precious and exotic creations from across the globe.

Kongo luxury arts from the sixteenth through the eighteenth century—many of which have never been exhibited before—will give an unprecedented historical backdrop to the outstanding work produced by master sculptors active in the same region during the nineteenth century. The array of figurative representations they produced range from miniature ivory finials for the staffs of office of Kongo leaders to the carved-wood commemorative shrine figures positioned above their burial sites.

The presentation will culminate with a gathering of fifteen monumental Mangaaka power figures produced in the Chiloango River region during the second half of the nineteenth century; these will include the celebrated example acquired by the Met in 2008, the original catalyst for the exhibition. For the first time, this electrifying form of expression will be understood as a defensive measure conceived by Kongo leaders to deflect Western incursions into this region of Central Africa.

With works drawn from sixty institutional and private lenders across Europe and the United States, Kongo: Power and Majesty will relate the objects on view to specific historical developments and will challenge misconceptions of Africa's relationship with the West. In doing so, it will offer a radical, new understanding of Kongo art over the last five hundred years.”

This important exhibition will bring together an unprecedented number of the earliest surviving Central African textiles, dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, from European collections, including the pieces from Ulm Museum, Germany and the the Kungliga Samlingarna, Sweden, shown below.

Luxury Cloth. Kongo peoples; Kongo Kingdom, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, or Angola, 16th–17th century, inventoried 1659. Raffia, H. 755⁄8 in. (192 cm), W. 591⁄2 in. (151 cm), L. of fringe 51⁄2 in. (14 cm). Kunst- und Wunderkammer des Christoph Weickmann, Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany (AV D. 48)

Luxury Cloth: Cushion Cover. Kongo peoples; Kongo Kingdom, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, or Angola, 16th–17th century, inventoried 1670. Raffia, 191⁄4 × 197⁄8 in. (49 × 50.5 cm). Kungliga Samlingarna, Sweden (HGK, Tx I, 164)

Cloth of the month: An Owo Yoruba royal shawl

AS394 - Unique royal shawl cloth "elegheghe" woven by a weaver called Obamadesara in the Yoruba town of Owo. Obamadesara was a prince in one of the royal compounds of Owo who travelled widely around Nigeria in his youth and returned to the town around 1920. From then until his death in the 1950s he wove a small number of shawl cloths for women in his lineage in a unique style that included the tapestry weave lizzard motif shown here (similar patterns on other West African textiles were woven using an entirely different supplementery weft float technique.) Owo was a centre of weaving by women on the upright loom but aside from a few migrants from Ilorin had no tradition of narrow strip weaving. It is likely that Obamadesara learnt to weave elsewhere in Nigeria and adapted his innovative cloths based on this as yet undiscovered tradition.

According to an article about him by a Nigerian academic, Dr Tunde Akinwumi, he was the only person to weave in this way and had no apprentices (I can supply reference etc if requested.) The article also suggests that he wove under 30 pieces in total. This cloth is the only one I know of with this complex check design, more typically they have a distinctive border along one edge as in the cloth shown on page 50 of John Gillow "African Textiles" (2003). Obamadesara's work is represented in museum collections by two cloths that we sourced, one now in the Musee du Quai Branly, Paris and the other in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This example uses hand spun thread throughout, is hand sewn, complete, and is in excellent condition, with minor fraying at one selvedge. Measurements: 66 ins x 39, 168 cm x 89.

Click on the photos to enlarge. More details on our gallery here.