Figure anthropomorphe debout, environ 1920/30 ·  Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée, Îles Trobriand, Baie de Milne, Massim · ID: 3043065

Description

wood, honey brown patina, white pigment, large head with ornamentally arranged facial features, rising from short cylindrical trunk with thin limbs, richly decorated with notched decor, slightly dam., minor missing parts (headdress).
Figurative free-standing sculpture is rare in the Massim area. There is no evidence that such figures represented ancestors or cultural heroes, but rather appear to have served as vessels to be inhabited by protective spirits.