Pair of figures "asie usu" · Côte d'Ivoire, Baoulé · ID: 3040076
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Provenance
Lore & Georg Kegel, Hamburg, Germany (collected in situ 1958)Zemanek-Münster, Würzburg, 5 July 2008, lot 274
Lucien van de Velde, Antwerp, Belgium
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