Jean-Jacques Rotthier Collection (1932–2009), Brussels, then by descent

This highly stylized figure is characterized by an open lozenge-shaped body, an oval head, a semicircular crest, and curved lateral projections with dovetail motifs framing the face. Smooth sheets of metal cover the lateral elements and crest, while the face is divided into distinct quadrants by finely incised lines. Since their arrival in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, these reliquary guardian figures have remained among the most sought-after works in the field of African art.

The radical abstraction of the human form embodied in the Mbulu Ngulu deeply fascinated the modernist artists active in Paris during the early twentieth century. Both Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti owned large reliquary figures in their personal collections. Juan Gris, a leading Cubist painter and close friend of Picasso, was so captivated by their geometric forms that he created his own interpretation of an Mbulu Ngulu in brown cardboard in 1922.