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African & Tribal Art :
Mossi : Mossi Wooden Doll
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Mossi Wooden Doll - AR.003
Origin: Burkina Faso
Circa: 20
th
Century AD
Collection: African Art
Medium: Wood
$6,000.00
Location: United States
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Photo Gallery |
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Description |
This attractive, highly reductivist and cubist doll
was made by the Mossi people of Burkina Faso.
Their works are remarkable for their unique
treatment of facial features and body
proportions, which they reduced to a series of
interlocking planes. The important aspects of the
doll – the breasts – were always emphasised, as
the main focus of the doll was to invoke
maternal feeling in the young girls to whom they
were given.
There is some regional variability in their
manufacture, but this may be considered a well-
executed example of the “classical” form, with a
ringed pedestal base, a tapering body up to an
angular block-shaped torso with geometrically
precise breasts, and a slim neck. The head is a
crest-shaped coiffure, which is denoted by
incised lines. The face reduced to a tiny portion
of the anterior aspect of the crest, with two
pinprick eyes and a nugatory mouth. There are
two additional eminences denoting further
bundles/plaits of hair, one on each side. The
surface is decorated with an incised triangle
(perhaps the vulva) at the base of the pedestal,
then linear geometrics across the trunk. The
upper region of the chest is decorated with
incised triangles, and the contours of the face
are also denoted using incised lines. The piece
has attained a good, glossy patina from long-
term handling.
- (AR.003)
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