Although the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, which holds this piece, attributes it to a Sakalava or Bara artist, and other sources attribute it to an Antanosy sculptor called Fesira, a closer look at the available sources and a comparative analysis in “Statuary in Context”, by Dr. Thomas Keller, reveals that this sculpture was probably made by another Antanosy carver known from a number of similar works. Though his name is not known to us, his style is unmistakable.
Funerary practices are a cornerstone of traditional life in Madagascar, and some of the finest pieces of traditional Malagasy art were those dedicated to the dead. Among a number of Malagasy peoples, such as the Sakalava, Mahafaly, Bara and Antanosy, wooden funerary sculptures were erected over the tombs of their deceased, or installed as perimeter posts. Similar traditions may be observed among some of the traditional cultures of Indonesia, from where a significant portion of the ancestors of the Malagasy people migrated over 2000 years ago.
Popular subjects include female figures, often carrying babies or vessels, birds, or they could be commemorative sculptures depicting the deceased themselves.
The featured sculpture, 180 cm in height, would have been painted, traces of red still visible on his loincloth. His eyes would have been inlayed with glass, and he once wore a white cloth, draped around his right shoulder.
While being a relatively late piece showing an unusual degree of naturalism, atypical among earlier precolonial examples, the featured sculpture also stands out from its contemporaries which usually depicted scenes from modern life in the early 20th century. Our anonymous Antanosy master rather chose to depict his subject in a traditional manner, with a traditional Malagasy hairstyle, wearing a loincloth and clenching a spear in each hand. His posture too, reminds us of more classic examples from earlier generations.
Quoting the African art expert, Susan Vogel: “The striding legs, however, impart a dynamism to this figure not found in more traditional ones. The delicate modeling of the muscles and the arresting gaze of this figure are unusually fine.”
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