A female Senufo sculpture

A female Senufo sculpture, from the region Diawala, Ivory Coast, the legs uprising from a cylindrical base, accentuated genitals, the slender torso with pointed navel and protruding conical breasts, on each scarification patterns of zigzag lines, the navel surrounded by radially arranged scarification marks, rounded strong shoulders leading to bent arms with one ring around each upper arm and twelve around each wrist, the hands resting on the hips, on the chest a carved medallion, notched back line, the rhomboid neck supporting an oval head with a flat facial plate, the lips are presented as two short bridges, the nose is slender and ends in a snub, the eyes are formed only as an incision in the face, the ears are worked as rings, in whose middle is a deepening, the head capped by a single crested coiffure; brown patina, traces of age and ritual use, several cracks. Provenance Mohamed Belo Garba.

Lit.: Burkhard Gottschalk: Senufo. Massa und die Statuen des Poro, 2002; Staatliche Museen der Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, Die Kunst der Senufo, Elfenbeinküste. Mit einem Beitrag von Till Förster, 1990; Museum Rietberg Zürich, Die Kunst der Senufo aus Schweizer Sammlungen, 1988; Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi: Senufo unbound. Dynamics of art and identity in West Africa, Cleveland 2015.

800 - 900,- Euro

Height: 74 cm
Weight: 4.5 kg