Figure of a "hermaphrodite" · Mali, Dogon · ID: 3046083
Schelcher-Beyer, France
Alain de Monbrison, Paris, France
Zemanek-Münster, Würzburg, 24. November 2012, Lot 124
French Private Collection
Description
wood, partly encrusted patina, rest., base
The encrusted patina, deriving from sacrificial offerings, may indicate that present figure is of the “vageu” type of figures, which was placed on family altars.
Sacrificial liquids were poured on the figural sculptures, including the blood of chickens, sheep, and goats, millet porridge, mixtures of various fruit and plant juices etc. These sacrificial materials are vehicles for “nyama”, the vital force that determines a persons mental and physical well-being.
The object Figure of a “hermaphrodite” with the object ID 3046083 was last part of the auction 93rd Tribal Art Auction at November 16, 2019 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 100 achieved a sales price of EUR 8,000.
You can find more Figures and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on African art.
Publications
AHDRC: 0145799