A Senufo maternity sculpture, region Dikodougou, Northern Ivory Coast, sitting on a four legged stool, short feet, sturdy legs leading to prominent buttocks, a slender torso with protruding navel and extremely elongated, tapering breasts, rounded shoulders leading to long angled arms holding in each a sucking child lying on the mother's lap, notched back line, wearing armlets on both upper arms and bracelets on both wrists, the long and slender neck supporting an elongated head with prominent jaw, a pointed mouth showing the teeth, a pronounced philtrum, a long nose framed by bulging eyes, the large semi-circular ears projecting outwardly, displaying linear scarification marks on the face and the torso, the hairstyle crested with one braid hanging over the forehead, one at the back of the head; hard wood, reddish patina with traces of age and long lasting ritual use, a touch-patina at the breasts and on the arms, 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.

700 - 800,- Euro

Height: 63 cm
Weight: 3,5 kg