A Haya Figure
Articulated figure
Haya, Tanzania
Mit... Lot 78
result :
Not available
Estimate :
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A Haya Figure
Articulated figure
Haya, Tanzania
Mit Sockel / with base
Wood. H 112 cm.
Provenance:
- Walter and Molly Bareiss, Munich / New York.
- Neumeister, Munich. 10.11.2005, lot 156.
- Swiss private collection, Basel.
Published:
- Roy, Christopher D. / Haenlein, Carl (1997). Kilengi. African Art from the Bareiss Collection. An exhibition of the Kestner Gesellschaft in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus.
- Roy, Christopher D. / Haenlein, Carl (1999). Kilengi: African Art from the Bareiss Family Collection. Washington: University of Washington Press.
Exhibited:
"Kilengi. African Art from the Bareiss Collection":
- Hanover: Kestner Gesellschaft, 1997.
- Vienna: Mak - Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, 1998.
- Munich: Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 1998.
- lowa City: The University of lowa Museum of Art, 1999.
- Purchase: Neuberger Museum of Art, State University of New York, 2000.
Christopher D. Roy describes this figure in 1997 in "Kilengi. African Art from the Bareiss Collection" as follows:
"Female figure, HAYA, Tanzania, wood, height 112.5 cm
The Haya live in the far north-west of Tanzania on the south-western shore of Lake Victoria. Their neighbors to the west are the Rwanda and to the south the Zinza (Gulliver1955, p.70, map). Their main staple food is the banana. Their capital is Bukoba on the western shore of Lake Victoria. Like their neighbors in the kingdoms of Ankole and Rwanda, the Haya can be divided into two main social groups according to their occupation. The bailu are farmers and form the bourgeois class, whereas the balangila are herders and comprise the royal families, a political elite. Their king was the omukama ("chief milker"), reflecting the importance of herding for the ruling class. (Carlson 1993, p.316)
The omukama was a divine king: "The king's power lay largely in his ability to mediate convincingly between the normative and the transcendent commands. By mediating between the temporal sphere of living people and the timeless, transcendent sphere of the ancestors, the omukama gave vitality to the kingdom and ensured the productivity of cultivated fields, banana groves, livestock and women." (Carlson 1993, p.317)...
...Representations of women might be expected at the Haya court, "where women dominated the center of the structure, the hearth, a symbol of nurturing and fertility. In contrast, men ruled the peripheral areas of the structure, both at the ancestral altar and in the courtyard area. The building symbolized the men's control of the women's creative power. The king's symbolic control over the fertility of women and the annual crops they grew was an important aspect of Haya kingship." (Carlson 1993, p.320)
This imposing figure is over a meter tall and has attached arms with joints at the shoulders so that her gesture could be altered or the figure could be clothed. It is tempting to imagine that this female figure was somehow used in connection with Haya kingship, perhaps as one of the markers that demarcated the royal household. The size, dramatic gesture and expressiveness of the face support the suggestion that the figure is a Haya version of the large dancing figures used by the Sukuma, who live not far to the east. It could also have served as a marker for the grave of a respected person. However, since the literature on Haya sculptures lacks any description of large female figures with articulated limbs, such statements are pure conjecture."
Described by Neumeister in 2005 as follows:
"TANSANIA. Standing female figure, presumably from the Haya, with outstretched, separately carved arms, large, open mouth and round eyes; black-brown patina on the face; hands broken off; cracks, dam., 112.5 cm.
BIBL.: Krieger, Kurt, Ostafrikanische Plastik, Berlin 1990 (Museum
für Völkerkunde); Meur, Charles, "Annäherung an die Maskenschnitzerei Tansanias mit Ausnahme des Südostens", in: Jahn, Jens (ed.), Tanzania, Munich/Munich 1994: 371-431; Meurant, Georges, "Die Bildhauerkunst der Nyamwezi", in: Jahn, Jens (ed.), Tanzania, Munich/Munich 1994: 217-293. € 4.000 - 5.000"
ATTENTION: please contact us for shipping information. Due to the size and weight, considerable costs must be expected.
CHF 3 000 / 6 000
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