Pair of figures "asie usu"
Côte d'Ivoire, Baule
not available anymore
Provenance
Lore & Georg Kegel, Hamburg, Germany (collected in situ 1958)Zemanek-Münster, Würzburg, 5 July 2008, lot 274
Lucien van de Velde, Antwerp, Belgium
Size
H: 42 cm & 42,5 cm
H: 16.5 inch & 16.7 inch
Description
wood, dark brown patina, nearly identical posture, crowned by rather big heads with flat oval faces and elaborate coiffures, tribe-typical scarifications (face and upper part of the body), string of glass beads around the hips of the female, min. dam., cracks, slight traces of abrasion, base;
when a pair of figures is carved together, they cannot possibly represent spirit-spouses (which are always single pieces). They are inevitably spirits of nature, called “asie usu”, which are secondary divinities whose favour is gained through statuettes.
Publications
Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Kunst der Elfenbeinküste, München 2001, p. 108 f.; van de Velde, Lucien & Joanna Teunen, Ivory Coast, Antwerp 2011AHDRC: 0057193