Specifications

• Height: 90 cm.
• Material: wood
• Position:
• Gender:
• Indigenous name:
• Price realised: € 2.000 – 4.000,- NS

Provenance

Loed van Bussel (1935-2018), Amsterdam; Aldo & Hannie van Eyck, Loenen aan de Vecht; De Zwaan, Amsterdam 11-12-2025, lot 765.

Publications

Exhibitions

Additional information

As as symbol of fecundity, wealth and power the water buffalo is omnipresent in Toraja culture. Not only is the kerbau the guardian of the dead, the animal is considered the vehicle of the dead tot the hereafter. On the present old item the stylised head with an upward extension – to some interpreted as the Tree-of-Life – we see a male figure with spreaded arms and legs in between the near circle of the horns connoting both death and fecundity in this very image. By rendering the figure in contours the spirit nature seems to be accentuated.

Photo credits

De Zwaan, Amsterdam