Cup in form of female figure

On ceremonial occasions, such as funeral celebrations, men and women in many parts of Africa consumed a low-alcohol beverage made from the raffia palm. Men would also drink palm wine in the evenings when they gathered in their retreats to discuss the affairs of the community. African sculptors carved special, elaborately decorated wooden drinking cups that expressed an owner's status.

The Pende cups depict female and male figures (cat. 87, 1969.S.161, and cat. 89, 1969.S.162). They are distinguished by their facial features, which replicate those on carved wooden village masks (mbuyu). Both faces display the characteristic prominent eyebrows above downcast eyes in a triangular face. The eyebrows on the standing male figure are exaggerated by the multiple lines above the brow, and the lips form an inverted V that identifies the "hyper male" in the Pende visual vocabulary.(30) The female's smooth, high round forehead, lowered eyelids, and upturned lips express feminine modesty.

Kuba drinking vessels (cat. 88, 1969.S.44) were carved out of wood or animal horn and decorated with geometric and figurative motifs derived from body scarification and textile designs. Some motifs reflected the status of the owner as a member of an association. Cups with handles carved in the form of a severed hand, for example, were owned by warriors. This refers to a time when Kuba warriors cut off an enemy's hand as proof of their victory. This act admitted warriors to an elite organization and conferred the right to display its emblem.(31) A nineteenth-century visitor observed that when Kuba men traveled or visited friends, they carried their personal cups with them, tied to the waist.(32)

The Wongo cup (cat. 90) portrays a standing female figure with arms akimbo, her face and torso decorated with raised scarification patterns. The lateral triangles formed by her bent arms echo the inverted triangle of her torso. Instead of being carved on a platform, she stands firm and perfectly balanced on her two feet. This cup, and two other examples—one of a standing female, the other, a seated female with outstretched legs—collected early in the twentieth century, are evidence of masterful innovation. They raise the question, however, For whom were they made: local client, missionaries, or foreign visitors?(33)

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, cat. 90, pp. 238, 240.

____________________
NOTES:

30. Strother, Zöe. Inventing Masks: Agency and History in the Art of the Central Pende. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. pp. 114-115.

31. Cornet, Joseph. Art of Africa: Treasures from the Congo. Trans. Barbara Thompson. London: Phaidon, 1971. p. 143.

32. Hultgren, Mary Lou, and Jeanne Zeidler. A Taste for the Beautiful: Zairian Art from the Hampton University Museum. Hampton, Va.: University Museum, 1993. p. 73

33. Mack, in Phillips, Tom, ed. Africa: The Art of a Continent. London: Royal Academy of Arts; Munich: Prestel, 1995. p. 271, cat. no. 4.42.

Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter. African Art in American Collections: Survey, 1989. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. p. 431, fig. 1111.

The Wongo cup on which the standing female is depicted is part of the permanent collection of the Buffalo Museum of Science.