A female Adamawa sculpture, Nigeria, standing on thin straight legs of which one is repaired, a modeled vulva, wide hips, the thin arms sculpted to the body are decorated with horizontal marks and embrace the bulging navel, the head is bent backwards, so that the wide-open mouth is also tilted, the ears protrude semicircularly from the bald head, the eyes are indicated only as hollows, the foremost tip of the small nose is broken off.

This vessel was created for use in Longuda kwandalha healing divinations. After a ritual specialist determined the cause of a disease, the patient was given a newly modeled vessel, into which the disease was transferred. Such pots, which tend to embody the symptoms described, are remarkable for their highly expressive and imaginative forms. Source Brooklyn Museum, N.Y.


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Height: 36 cm
Weight: 1,43 kg