Prestige Staff of Henrique III
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.One-to-one associations between staffs of office that have been preserved in the West and the identity of the leaders who wielded them have rarely been recorded. An unusual exception is this wood staff encased in metalwork owned by the Kongo king Henrique III (r. 1842–57). Its abstract repeating pattern of intersecting lozenges on the grip is evocative of other forms of Kongo decorative arts. A pair of orbs relate to key points in Henrique’s reign, while the lozenges allude to the network of ancestors that grants chiefly power. That connection is further underscored through the staff’s iron tip, designed to be planted into the earth, uniting the king with his forebears.
Artwork Details
- Title: Prestige Staff of Henrique III
- Date: Ca.1842–1857
- Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo; Republic of the Congo; Angola
- Culture: Kongo peoples; Kongo Kingdom
- Medium: Wood, metal
- Dimensions: H. 44 1/8 (112 cm), D. 3 15/16 in. (10 cm)
- Classification: Wood-Implements
- Credit Line: Museu Nacional de Etnologia, Lisbon
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing