A Well weathered and worn sculpture of a Chief or Ancestral Spirit. Not every Hemba chief was honored with such a depiction. Such commissions were divinely sanctioned when a sitting chief was visited in a dream by one of his predecessors and this was interpreted as a sign that a singiti figure should be carved in that individual’s honor. Hemba artists emphasized two bodily passages of such representations. he head as the site of one’s intellect where knowledge is taken in through the eyes and the stomach where the umbilicus is the point of connection with one’s extended lineage. A Hemba chief inherited a series of such works that were housed in a dedicated structure centrally located in the community adjacent to his residence. Carved wood with deep well handled patina and some obvious age and handling. Measures 18.5 inches tall. Provenance: Leonard Kahan Gallery in the 1980's, Ex McConnell collection, Va.

Fair, well handled