An image is not available here yet.
View at the museum ↗Panel
KubaPossibly mid–20th century
- Attribution
- Kuba Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Medium
- Raffia, plain weave; embroidered with raffia in stem stitches and running stitches cut to form pile
- Physical dimensions
- 65.5 × 61.5 cm (25 3/4 × 24 1/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by the Textile Society and royalties from Avon Company
Museum metadata is available under CC0. Image availability and rights are separate; consult the source record.
Source rights statement: Public-domain image eligibility not established by this export
View the museum record ↗From the museum
According to oral tradition, the seventeenth-century Kuba king Shyaam introduced plush-textured raffia textiles to his kingdom. Raffia panels have long been considered valuable in Central Africa; plain panels were used as currency as early as the sixteenth century. Increasingly decorative panels, embellished by women with innumberable combinations of geometric patterns, may have developed from this practice. Until the early twentieth century, such panels were exchanged in a variety of contexts—for instance, as royal tribute or part of a marriage contract. Today they continue to be collected by families, used in funeral displays, and buried with important adults.
Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0