Male figure of an ancestor spirit "blaal" · Papua New Guinea - Sepik · ID: 3035969
Description
wood, matt black patina, encrustations with red pigment, characteristic form in the so-called “beak style”, with the long projecting beak-like mouth, slightly dam. (tip of the coiffure), crack (beak tip), base;
according to O. Reche the ancestor figures originally were advancements or supplements of the real ancestor skulls. The idea was, that not only a natural head but a whole body should be offered as abode to the soul of the deceased. According to Reche it can be assumed, that the original form of an ancestor figure consisted of a natural human skull and a wooden trunk. But this was only a transitional stage and finally was detached by such wooden whole-figure-statuettes.
The object Male figure of an ancestor spirit “blaal” with the object ID 3035969 was last part of the auction 75th tribal art auction at November 30, 2013 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 40 achieved a sales price of EUR 4,000.
You can find more Figures and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on Oceanian art.