Ritual stool

Luba stools are made up of one or two cariatids. Inappropriately called cariatides, for the “charyatide” comes from the name of the stone statues dressed in a long tunic that constituted the columns of the Baldaquin of the Erecteion of the Athenian Acropolis, temple in honor of Poseidon, Erecteo and Athena. In reality, “chariátide” is the native of Caryes, city of Laconia.

The Luba have been characterized by a refined art of what their supported stools bear witness to.caryatides, located face to face, whose headdresses reproduce the hairstyles of the Luba woman. The woman, as a receptacle of the spirits, must be shown in the most beautiful way possible. The women who support the seat of the stool are adorned with beautiful hairstyles in the form of a waterfall, a cross or apepinados. They're boss seats and they're not meant to sit in them. They are symbols of dignity. They are part of the royalties and their use is reserved for ceremonies. Your custody is entrusted to the boss's wife.

This stool presents a young woman initiated, given her scarifications, in a curious position, not frequent in the luba statuery whose cariatides usually appear on foot or on knees. In this case it is settled on the torso, the hips are a barely perceptible enhancement on the base platform of those that break deformed and exaggeratedly long legs that surround the platform. Back of the cross hairstyle and five bracelets on each arm, indicating its range. There's a broken piece on the back. Black patina.