Standing male figure "lü mä"
Description
wood, blackish brown patina, strong stature, individual features: coiffure, necklace, radial tattoos at the corners of the mouth, slightly dam., crack (head), abrasion of paint, sacrificial traces, base;
comparable works by the same artist: figure published by I. Hersey, 1978, as no 3.6. (q.v. Yale 0063280); figure in the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren (Inv.no.EO.1969.59.189) which was collected in the field by Jean A.H. Houzeau de Lehaie in 1933/34; further figure auctioned at Zemanek-Münster, 78th Tribal Art Auction, 18 october 2014, lot 248.
These wooden figures called “lü mä” - “wooden person” are genuine portraits. The subjects are usually living people, whose name the figures bear. Individual features - the shape of the lips, the size of the nose, or the placement of the eyes - were impressed upon a conventional prototype. The Dan seem to have esteemed these figures primarily for their rarity. The possession of a figure was a mark of status, one which a man could only attain if he could both persuade a sculptor to carve a figure, and had sufficient means to sponsor a large feast. The feast marked the public “unveiling” of the figure, after which it became the possession of the sponsor. Some sources tell that the figures sometimes were used as dolls, that they were newly painted and dressed even by grown women just for their own pleasure.