A male Urhobo statue

A male Urhobo statue, Nigeria, posted on a fragmentary base, sitting upright and rigidly on a one-legged stool, wearing large anklets, sturdy legs leading to prominent buttocks, accentuated genitals, a slender torso with a pointed navel and a deep vertical scarification mark, wearing a necklace with an amulet in front of his chest, rounded shoulders leading to bent arms, each decorated with a large bracelet, the very long cylindrical neck supporting an elongated head with a heart-shaped facial plane, an aggressively protruding open mouth with a wide row of teeth, a short nose with a broad tip, protruding eyes, on his wide forehead seven deep vertical scarification marks, the ears are set far down and have a hemispherical shape, on each side of the head three protruding ‘plaits’, wearing a round hat, the entire sculpture is carved from a single piece of very hard, heavy wood, traces of white kaolin, signs of age and ritual use, several cracks, the feet are broken off, incl. stand.

Lit.: Perkins Foss, "Urhobo Statuary for Spirits and Ancestors", African Arts, July 1976, Vol. IX, No. 4, p. 18; Jean-Baptiste Bacquart: The Tribal Arts of Afric’, p. 93, fig. 8.

1.500 - 1.800,- Euro

Height: 75,5 cm

Weight: 5,9 kg (incl. stand)