Standing female figure ·  Madagascar, Sakalava · ID: 3035840

Description

wood, slightly shiny reddish brown patina, rising from a cone shaped (cut) base with a small platform, showing a broad and plane torso with both arms tight to the body, the right hand resting on the chest in a regardful manner, coiffure in characteristic burls, arranged in a circle at the back of the head with a lobe in the centre, slightly dam. (mouth, nose, eye zone), missing parts and cracks;
for madagascan people the ancestors “razana” guarantee the existence of the living people. This is why most of their sculpture is created for graves where it is exposed to wind and weather and obtains a heavily weathered look, which is not the case with present figure. She should have been placed inside and sureley she was not alone, since in Madagascar a female figure rarely appears without a male counterpart.

Littérature comparée

Phillips, Tom (Hg.), Afrika, Die Kunst eines Kontinents, Berlin 1996, p. 150