Old Expressive African nail Nkondi statue from the Bakongo, Congo.
Height are 63 cm.
This Bakongo sculpture are dated mid 20th century and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

The protective power of this nail nkondi (the telema lwinbanganga posture adopted by the Kongo nobility and the soothsayers as a sign of absolute authority, knives and nails that recall the actions that sealed the history of the community, and traces of polychromy with therapeutic virtues) respond to the virtuosity of the sculptural gesture. The power of the streamlined face emphasizes the sensitivity of the facial features, through which the Kongo ideal of beauty is superbly translated: very finely modeled, fleshy mouth, slightly curved nose, shaded eyebrows, ears with detailed auricles. Stylistically, this statue is linked to the corpus of Vili sculptures.