Large Akan Ashanti 'Asante' or Fante Ghana Queen Mother Maternity from Shrine

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About the Item

This strong, fertile, and proud Queen Mother holds her child (her people) across her lap while she engages us with forthright but friendly eyes and a smile. The maturely proportioned child looks out at us while it reaches for her offered breast and rubs its full belly. She has a finely detailed traditional hairdo plaited at the back with two braids at the sides, a similar hairdo on the child. The Queen has traditional scarification marks on her forehead, bottom of her neck, and on her shoulders. Her long neck is ringed indicating wealth and well-being. Her muscular body is naked apart from sandals (a symbol of her status as a Queen Mother) and she sits bolt upright on a traditional Ashanti stool, all signifiers of royalty. Both faces have the elegant Ashanti nose bridge and arching brows achieved by the master carvers of Ghana. The Ashanti (alt Asante) and Fante (alt. Fanti) are subgroups of the Akan peoples of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. They are a matrilineal society, so sculptures of Queen Mothers and maternity figures are frequently encountered as votive objects. Probably created in the early half of the 20th century. This is by one of the anonymous master carvers of the Ashanti. Statues of the archetypal Queen Mother were placed in shrines where they would be ritually anointed with oils, powders, and other substances to ensure the fertility and nourishment of an individual, a family, or a village. The infants often look mature, as this one does, because they are surrogates or symbols for the adult Community, rather than an individual or suckling infant. This figure was at some point cleaned of its encrusted, thick coating of ritual oils and powders, some of which had a blue tint. The oils have stained much of the figure, and remains of the powders can be seen in the crevices. References: The Arts of Ghana by Herbert M. Cole and Doran H. Ross, University of California, 1977, pages 107-117. Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa, by Herbert M. Cole, Mercatofonds, Brussels, 2017, pages 203-212.

Dimensions:
Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)Width: 6 in (15.24 cm)Depth: 7.5 in (19.05 cm)
Style:
Tribal (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Hardwood,Hand-Carved
Place of Origin:
Ghana
Period:
Early 20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
Early 20th Century
Condition:
Repaired: There is a repaired crack on the mother's proper right wrist. Note that this came from a shrine context where it was covered with oils and powders that have been mostly washed off, but the residue remains. Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses. There is a repaired crack on the mother's proper right wrist. Note that this came from a shrine context where it was covered with oils and powders that have been mostly washed off, but the residue remains..
Seller Location:
Santa Fe, NM
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU5242219080532

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