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Todas las subastas / Etnográfica / A wooden sculpture - Bamana / Minianka - Mali (No reserve price)
Zoomorphic Sculpture of the Bamana/Minianka - Bla Region, Mali The compact wooden sculpture reduces the animal's body to a few elemental volumes. Four short, column-like legs support a squat body, its back articulated by a powerful hump. A long, slightly curved horn rises from the forehead, creating a dynamic vertical contrast with the heavy mass of the body. Eyes and other anatomical details are only suggested; the identification of a specific animal species remains deliberately ambiguous. The dry, earthy brown surface, with its cracks, abrasions, and partial encrustations, lends the object an archaic, weathered presence. The sculpture's provenance leads to the Bla region in south-central Mali, a cultural contact zone between the Bamana and Minianka (Mamara) peoples. Highly abstracted zoomorphic power objects and altarpieces are well documented there. The Smithsonian, for example, holds a similarly compact, humped animal form from the Minianka region, which is described as an altar. In the Bamana context, zoomorphic boliw are sacred power objects: they could possess a wooden core and be transformed through repeated application of ritual substances. However, in the case of the present, largely exposed wooden object, its classification as a boli is uncertain without a documented ritual context; the more cautious designation "zoomorphic cult or altar figure" seems appropriate. Literature (selection): Jean-Paul Colleyn (ed.): Bamana: The Art of Existence in Mali. 2001. Patrick R. McNaughton: The Mande Blacksmiths. 1988. Youssouf Tata Cissé: La confrérie des chasseurs Malinké et Bambara. 1964. Some of the information and photos are generated by artificial intelligence and is based on published sources from the fields of ethnography, archaeology, and art history documents. Copyright reserverd for all info and photos. Inv. No. MAZ27660
Estimación:€275
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