A female Senufo Rhythmpounder - déblé - Northern Ivory Coast, Korhogo region, close to the border to Mali, uprising from a cylindrical, base with slightly bent legs, the openwork arms carved beside a slender body with a pointed navel, the elongated neck supporting a an oval head with pointed chin, framed by semicircular ears, wearing a domed coiffure, beneath a handle with significant traces of use., scarification patternsaround the navel; aged patina, the base of the statue rounded with signs of use by the specific function of the sculpture.; fine resinous to reddish patina.

Many of these Rythm Pounders were used like a hammer to open symbolically or more or less directly a hole in the thick adobe wall of a hut, to carry the dead body of a man - it´s a male sculpture - outside for funaral purpose. In the literature is only described the pounding on earth and the swinging over the ground, but not the described function, which is the reason for the desolat conditions of many déblé bases. W.J.

Gottschalk Burkhard, "Senufo, Massa und die Statuen des poro", Glaze Anita J. , "Art and Death in a Senufo Village", Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1981, Goldwater Robert, "Senufo Sculpture from West Africa" - The Museum of Primitive Art New York, 1964

1.200 - 1.600,- Euro

Height: 131 cm
Weight: 5,4 kg