A Senufo maternity, Ivory Coast, sitting on a four legged stool, short feet, wearing bracelets around ankles, sturdy legs, accentuated genitals, a flaring pointed torso with a projecting navel and conical breasts, rounded shoulders leading to long arms holding two children, which looks more like small adults, wearing an armlet on both upper arms and a bracelet on both wrists, the torso is decorated with incised patterns on the front and the backside, the cylindrical neck supporting an elongated head with a prominent jaw, a protruding round mouth showing bared teeth of lattice shaped, a long nose with a broad tip, the nose is connected to the forehead, slit eyes, small hemispherical ears set towards the back of the head, further scarification marks on the cheeks, the hairstyle crested with one braid hanging over the forehead, one on each side and one at the back of the head; heavy hard wood, brownish to blackened patina with traces of age and long lasting ritual use, several cracks.

Lit.: Burkhard Gottschalk: Senufo. Massa und die Statuen des Poro, Düsseldorf 2002; Kat. Ausst. Die Kunst der Senufo: Elfenbeinküste. Mit einem Beitrag von Till Förster, Staatliche Museen der Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, 16.11.1990 - 24.2.1991, Berlin 1990; Die Kunst der Senufo, Museum Rietberg Zürich, aus Schweizer Sammlung, Zürich 1988; Homberger Lorenz: Künstler in Werkstätten der Senufo. In: Afrikanische Meister. Kunst der Elfenbeinküste, Zurüch 2014, p. 151-178; Wolfgang Jaenicke: Maternities West African Art.

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Height: 49 cm
Weight: 2,6 kg