A very large Adja pair of guardian figures of a courtyard, male and female, each standing on a high plinth, the female figure wearing chains with kauri shells on both ankles, the male a bronze ring on the left foot, the straight legs merging into the equally straight torso, the visible genitalia very abstracted and reduced in size, below the nable and at the level of the "shoulders" a carved double ring, a bell amulet is attached to both necks, twelve bells in the female and ten in the male figure. These bells have a protective function against evil spirits and are often hung on doors in the entrance area. Bells are associated with the divine and supernatural, the heads with wide open large mouths as if they were singing, the two heads are very similar, the female is slightly larger and slightly more tilted backwards, the blue patina refers to ritual contexts.

More wellkown are the Aja sculpture made by terracotta, but stylistically they are similar, Lit. Karl-Ferdinand Schaedler Erde und Erz, Panterra Verlag, S. 190, Abb 345

"A more recent development has evidently developed along the 400 km long Mono River, which forms the border between Togo and Benin in its lower reaches. They are heads, figures with one or more faces and upper bodies - voluminous objects that are reminiscent of the figures of the South American painter Botero. Their name kronkoronbali - ie "children of yesteryear" - makes clear the Ewe's idea of ​​rebirth, which involves a certain equality of death and birth: one is origin, the other return. Since these works of art are used primarily in the area of ​​the Mono River, although they apparently reach as far as the south of Ghana, these objects will be referred to as "Mono River" in the following, according to K,H. Krieg (kindly communicated)." Schaedler aaO.

Schaedler S. 190/191, Aja Terracotta sculptures.

sold

Height: 154 cm / 150 cm
Weight: 7,1 kg / 9,2 kg