EARTH-POUNDER STATUE "POMBIA"

SENUFO (Ivory Coast)
H : 85 cm.
Wood, cowries and metal
Private collection

This remarkable work was produced in a wood with a beautiful dark patina. The lengthened forms and the hollowed vertical spaces so typical of Senufo art have been extended in this instance to their limit. Only the head, the shoulders and the buttocks keep a roundness corresponding to the criteria of beuaty of the peoples of the region. The esthetic demands are evident in this representation of a man-like genie which ends in the form of a pounder to beat the earth during ceremonies and funerals.