Equestrian figure "syonfolo" ·  Côte d'Ivoire, Senufo · ID: 3035313

Description

wood, blotched greyish brown patina, encrusted in some areas, kaolin, horseman with extremely elongated trunk and overlong arms, tribal marks on face and arms, cracks, traces of insect caused damage (head crest), paint rubbed off, rep. (chip left hand, horse tail);
“syonfolo” roughly means “master of the horse”. Equestrian figures were part of the soothsayers objects and were made in reminiscence of the equestrian hordes of Samori Touré once depredating and destructing the Senufos land and villages. Nowadays hardly anyone remembers this painful time, but the Senufo combined horse and rider with power, violence and with a claim to leadership for quite a long time.

The object Equestrian figure “syonfolo” with the object ID 3035313 was part of the auction 74th tribal art auction on September 7, 2013. The object with the lot number 164 achieved a sales price of EUR 2,000 with an asking price of EUR 1,500.

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Comparing literature

Burkhard, Gottschalk, Senufo - Unbekannte Schätze aus privaten Sammlungen, Düsseldorf 2009, p. 64 f.