Mossi Female Figure — Burkina Faso

Description

This elegant Mossi female figure is distinguished by its restrained form, balanced proportions and beautifully aged surface. Rather than relying on elaborate ornamentation, the sculptor created a powerful presence through the careful treatment of the body, posture and simplified features.

The surface has acquired a rich, deep patina over time, giving the sculpture a quiet sense of age and presence. It is a piece that rewards prolonged observation: the longer one looks, the more subtle details of the carving and surface become apparent.

The figure comes from a New York collection and was previously offered at Bonhams, New York, in May 2011, Lot 2077, as a Mossi female figure from Burkina Faso.

I acquired the sculpture from a well-known anthropologist and collector with a longstanding knowledge of African art.

About the Mossi

The Mossi are one of the major peoples of Burkina Faso, with a long history of powerful kingdoms and royal courts, particularly in the regions of Ouagadougou and Yatenga. Mossi sculpture is closely associated with ideas of ancestry, authority, continuity and protection.

Female figures could have different roles within Mossi society. Some were conceived as royal or ancestral effigies and played a part in ceremonies involving offerings and libations; others served commemorative or protective purposes. A well-documented example in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for instance, is a ninana — literally a “modeled figure” — associated with the Mossi royal courts of Yatenga and used in ceremonies honouring royal ancestors.

The precise original function of the present sculpture is not documented, although its form may be understood within the same broader tradition of Mossi figural sculpture represented by the ninana figures mentioned above. Its restrained female form, elongated proportions and deeply aged surface nevertheless place it within an important tradition of Mossi figural sculpture.

A custom stand is included.

Price: €4,800

For further information, photographs or shipping arrangements, please contact me.

Provenance. Read the following article

An Exchange Between Two Ways of Looking