Early 20th C. Malagan New Ireland Polychrome Wood

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Ancient / Ethnographic Art Through The Ages

By Artemis Gallery

Jan 7, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-01-07 10:00:00 2021-01-07 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient / Ethnographic Art Through The Ages https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-ethnographic-art-through-the-ages-6258
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• Lot Description
  Oceania, Papua New Guinea, New Ireland, Libba village, ca. early 20th century CE. An elaborately painted and carved wood openwork of an anthropomorphic stylized figure standing upon an integral flat circular base. His legs, loincloth, and three ornamental pointed columns support his standing pose and large headdress. The surface is painted with red, yellow, white, and black pigments that highlight his features. Alternating bands and triangles of color travel from the legs up to an intricate circular pendant with a mandala-like pattern painted directly onto his chest. The angular head has lustrous green and brown shell eyes set within white painted diamonds that give a lifelike quality to the otherwise abstract figure. The impressive headdress is formed by a central solid cylinder surrounded by four taller curved points. A magnificent ritual figure perhaps created for the malagan funerary rituals to house the soul of the deceased! Size: 4.75" W x 19.25" H (12.1 cm x 48.9 cm)
  
  New Ireland is a province of Papua New Guinea, and the art of this area centers heavily on the ritualistic and funerary aspects of their culture. Elaborate ceremonies and feasts held to honor the dead are known as "malagan" and this word is also used to describe the carved figures created for these ceremonies. The ritual feasting, carving, and performances to usher the soul of the deceased into the afterlife can last up to several years, depending on the wealth of the family sponsoring the festivities. Sometimes when deaths occurred close together, multiple families pooled resources to defray the cost of these ceremonies to simultaneously honor more than one deceased person. The sculpture's purpose was to honor the individual in an idealzed way. It was not a portrait of the physical characteristics, rather it was created to demonstrate their ancestral ties, rank, and/or power through details, such as the painted headdress and pendant of this piece! Malagan provided a physical place or house for the soul to live in during the funerary ceremonies, and were handled with care, as if a living being. Once the ceremonies were concluded, the soul was thought to have left the malagan and these sculptures were discarded; either burned or left to decay, they were not reused for any future souls because of their individulized nature.
  
  Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-Dr. Abe Rosman: Anthropology Professor Emeritus Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
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  #159268

  Condition

  Several headdress points reattached. Stable fissures and cracks on backside and base. fading and chipping of pigment. Vibrantly painted and detailed with shell eyes!
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