Senufo Sculpture

Senufo, Cote D'voire. Wood. Pigment.
Height: 23"

This superb maternity figure seated on a hand carved throne, spotting scarification on both mother and child, with bulbous hair do (perhaps the hair style of the time), and looking zoomorphic, appears both regal and magisterial. Oral history tells us that in certain instances, sculptures such as this, would also be used to relay subliminal messages .

In old African cultures (and still to this day!) mother and child images evoked very powerful adulatory emotions in the populace, so any messages that involved such an image, whether hidden or overt, would have been very well received.