An old Lobi head stake, a "baathil", collected in Gaoua, Burkina Faso. The head has a narrow low strip of hair in the middle, otherwise it is bald. The ears are evident, the eyebrows and the almond-shaped eyes are bulging, a wide and protruding hooked nose wide, a receeding chin, broad full lips, three scarification marks on each cheek; the wood has chips in various places.

These heads were used inside the house and kept in baskets or terrakota vessels. Sometimes they were used outdoors during dance ceremonies. Thomas Keller analysed that from a short sequence in the Lobi film by Jacques Dumas in 1972.

Lit.: Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Afrikanische Kunst in Deutschen Privatsammlungen, München 1973, p. 63. Meyer, Piet, Kunst und Religion der Lobi, Zürich 1981, p. 101, ill. 108.

sold

Height: 49 cm
Weight: 2,3 kg