Standing female figure "tugubele" · Côte d'Ivoire, Senufo · ID: 3042597
Description
wood, dark brown patina, without feet rising from conical base, typical posture, facial features and scarification marks, dam., missing parts (upper arm, breast), traces of abrasion, base.
Such figures belong to single persons, mainly soothsayers. They are indispensable for getting into contact with the “tugubele”, the small invisible and omnipresent bush spirits. The “tugubele” promise to help their human partners, when they are appreciated accordingly, which means that a figure has to be carved, representing them. Just like the bush spirits such figures are called “tugubele”.
The object Standing female figure “tugubele” with the object ID 3042597 was last part of the auction 87th Tribal Art Auction at November 11, 2017 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 267.
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.