A Senufo ceremonial staff, region of Korhogo, village Tiebila. These staffs are named Tilepitchia (Pretty Woman or Pretty Girl) and are given to brave women or girls. On top a woman sitting on a four-legged stool, very long bent arms, each decorated with two bracelets (upper arm and wrist), the hands rest on the knees, broad but flat gluteae, pointing breasts, a prominent navel, a necklace with an amulet around the neck, the open mouth with beautifully worked light brown gritted teeth, a long nose, broad at the tip, coffee-bean eyes, a crested hairstyle with a pony-like braid hanging in front of the face, further braids on the sides and at the back of the head; dark brown patina, well-worn from ritual use. Provenance Mohamed Belo Garba.

Lit.: Jean-Paul Barbier, Art of Cote d´Ivoire, 1933. Anita Glaze, Art and Death in a Senufo Village, 1981. Cole, Herbert, Maternity. Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa, 2017. Glaze, Anita, Woman Power and Art in a Senufo Village. In: African Arts 8, 1975.

500 - 600,- Euro

Height: cm
Weight: kg