Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Big nested lozenges in thin hatched lines, drawn with a very light hand.

This Shoowa prestige panel is Kuba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is piled raffia. Shoowa cloths come from the Kuba kingdom in the Kasai region, where men traditionally wove the raffia ground and women embroidered it. Large concentric lozenges outlined in fine dark hatching sit on a pale cream ground, mirrored across a central axis. The scale is big and open, with plenty of bare space. A pale hem surrounds the cloth. The panel is 22 inches wide by 21.5 long.

Plenty of room to breathe, and the lozenges take full advantage.