Specifications

• Height: 147 cm.
• Material: wood
• Position:
• Gender:
• Indigenous name:
• Price realised: (€ 6. -8.000) NC

Provenance

Caremans collection, Antwerp; Francois Coppens, Sint Niklaas; Dorotheum, Vienna 4-10-2021, lot 62.

Publications

Ref.: Waterson, Roxana (1990), The Living House. An Anthropology of Architecture in South-East Asia, pp. 194-95, ill. 161 and 162.

Exhibitions

Additional information

The presence of female breasts on the Belu (Tetum) doors can be superficially reflected upon as a symbol of fertility. Here it most probably is the sign of female authority in combination with the former. Notice the intricate raised panel with an archaic labyrinthic pattern. Downscaled it consists of the same pendant-like pattern, probably connoting the female sex.

Photo credits

Dorotheum, Vienna