A male Senufo Guardian sculpture, from the region Korhogo, village Diamtènè. The style resembles that from the area of Diamtènè. Very short legs rising directly from the low cylindrical base, a skirt whose pleats are arranged in three rows, a slender torso with a protruding navel which is decorated with scarifications, the shoulders are shaped like boards with an engraved X on each one, slim elongated arms, both hands carrying fetish bells, a long neck, an oval head with a pointed mouth, the nose with a round tip, the eyes bordered all around, an Iroquois-like hairstyle; remains of Camwood, partly shiny dark brown patina, signs of age and cultic use.

"Their membership of the Poro would be an explanation for our little knowledge of their significance, because this organisation, which largely determines the village world of the Senufo, is a secret society. ... Even rarer are the statues [propi:ibèlè] … of which it is only said that they belong to the Poro, because there is no reliable information about their use.“ Burkhard Gottschalk, Kunst aus Schwarzafrika. SENUFO. Unbekannte Schätze aus privaten Sammlungen, 2009, p. 174, 179.

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.

sold

Height: 114 cm
Weight: 8,5 kg