Mangbetu Harp - Lot 85

Lot n° 85
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
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Result : 1 450EUR
Mangbetu Harp - Lot 85
Mangbetu Harp DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO Ivory, wood, snakeskin. Replaced strings H. 46.1 cm When aesthetics meets music. The Mangbetu are inveterate adepts of refinement and advanced pomp and circumstance through everyday objects, revealing their cult of beauty and their concern for aesthetic details. Created by the Zande and Barambo, they belonged to the musical repertoires linked to the Royal Court. The music reflected the social organisation of the populations of the north-eastern part of Congo-Kinshasa. When a chief wished to broaden his musical corpus, he would bring in renowned musicians from other kingdoms. More than an instrument, they symbolized by their beauty, their sculptural finesse, the prestige and fame of the kingdom from which they came. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the elongated Mangbetu heads appeared in the anthropomorphic decorations of the handles. The finesse and delicacy of this harp respond with subtlety to the softness of the colour of the ivory. Harmony of the curve of the neck extending delicately over the neck and the stretched and refined headdress. The body covered with snakeskin. For a Mangbetu harp, with a face fashioned in ivory from the former Audouin-Dubreuil collection, now in the Musée des Cordeliers. For an instrument with many similarities kept in the Musée du Quai Branly, acquired by the Société des amis du musée d'ethnographie du Trocadéro in 1930 from the collector Dr Stephen. (Exhibition catalogue, La parole du fleuve. Harpes d'Afrique centrale, 1999, ill.81).