Male-female couple ·  Nigeria, Igbo · ID: 3049241

Description

wood, black paint,

According to Cole, some of the same sculptors who carved conventionalized cult images in nothwestern areas of Igbo country also made secular “dance emblems” for display and prestige puposes.

These include large idealized couples, figures of beautiful women “ugonachomma,” as well as elaborately designed “dance emblems”.

These works were commissioned by the various age-grades for competitive and festive dance displays. Based on a photograph taken by Missionary Basden in the early 1930s, these images were paraded through public dance arenas. They served as identifying emblems of the age-grades and as objects of prestige.

Due to its smaller dimensions, this pair of figures could have once crowned a dance emblem, like the one published in Cole, 1984, p. 110, ill. 208.

The object Male-female couple with the object ID 3049241 was last part of the auction 99th Auction at November 12, 2022 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 265 achieved a sales price of EUR 1,400.

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Comparing literature

Cole, Herbert M. & Chike C. Aniakor, Igbo Arts, Los Angeles 1984, p. 107 ff.