A male Bamana sculpture

A male Bamana sculpture, sitting on a four-legged stool with notched decoration, abstract feet beneath muscular legs leading to rounded hips beneath a flaring pointed torso with conical projecting navel, accentuated pectoral muscles and notched scarification marks in zigzag form, sloping shoulders leading to arms angled forwards holding a sickle in his right hand, a cylindrical neck with a collar around it supporting an oval head with a carved on the back, the face with a heart-shaped facial plane, a pointed mouth beneath a straight nose leading to high arched brows, framed by inset tacks for eyes, c-shaped ears which sit far back, the face bordered with a serrated decoration, wearing a string around the neck and around the left hand, surmounted by a conical three-parted headdress of incised lines; heavy wood, blackened patina with traces of age and ritual use, several cracks.

Lit.: Jean-Paul Colleyn: Bamana: The Art of Existence in Mali, Museum for African Art, New York 2001; Jean-Paul Colleyn: Bamana. Visions of Africa, Milan 2009; Sara C. Brett-Smith: The Making of Bamana Sculpture. Creativity and Gender, Cambridge University Press 1994.

500 - 600,- Euro

Height: 64 cm
Weight: 3,34 kg