Ceremonial seat (ngundja),

early 20th century, before 1975

<p>At a time when Chokwe people in the area of present-day Angola and Democratic Republic of the Congo were besieged by the European slave trade, Chokwe artists radically appropriated designs from European furniture. Modeled after seventeenth-century European chairs, the portable “throne” became a symbol of Chokwe chiefly authority. By constructing this chair out of separate pieces of wood in the European fashion, its sculptor was able to depict figurative scenes characterizing daily and ritual life in the Chokwe kingdom. When ideas and techniques migrated to a new continent, they combined with local traditions to give rise to innovative aesthetic forms. </p> <p>Juliana Ochs Dweck, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Engagement<br></p>

This Chokwe chair, a portable symbol of chiefly authority, adopts the design and construction techniques of European furniture, which Portuguese traders introduced to Central Africa in the late 1700s. Chokwe artists carved the earliest four-legged chairs from single pieces of wood, and, as a result, these tended to be relatively compact and small in scale. This chair, constructed of separate pieces of wood joined together in the European fashion, allowed the artist to embellish the individual rungs and backrest with three-dimensional carvings prior to assembly. The resulting figures and vignettes catalogue the daily and ritual life of the Chokwe court. Masqueraders wearing the winged Cihongo headdress, a drummer, and the chief’s son artfully span the chair’s components.

Among the Chokwe, thrones are the principal symbols of chiefly authority. Unlike the monoxylous stools typical of sub-Saharan design, this chair is constructed of separate pieces of wood joined together. Chokwe artists adapted its shape from European-style chairs introduced by Portuguese traders in the seventeenth century, and embellished the backrest and rungs with three-dimensional carvings of single figures and vignettes that catalogue the daily and ritual life of the court. In this example, a Chihongo masquerade figure wearing an oval hoop skirt and winged headdress artfully spans the top rail. The figure is echoed on the front stretcher by two masqueraders with skirts flared as if in motion. Depicted on the left rung is likely one of the chief’s sons or nephews, recognizable by his rounded top hat, while on the right rung a court musician plays a drum.