Beschreibung:

Monumental Sapi Figure, Coastal Style, Sierra Leone nomoli Stone Height 19in (48.2cm) Provenance Minister of Finance, Sierra Leone, acquired in 1952 Georges Rodrigues, New York, given as a gift by the above in the 1970s Martin Lerner Collection, New York, acquired from the above in July 1979 According to Georges Rodriques (personal communication with Martin Lerner) placentas of newborns were placed inside the naval cavity in presumably a ritual context. Frederick Lamp notes, "The prehistoric stone carvings discovered in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia were among the earliest art objects from the general area to be published, and are generally considered the oldest objects of art from this region. They have long been regarded as a singular and isolated phenomenon believed to relate isochronically and stylistically only to the ivory work discovered since then in European collections, in salt cellars (see Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna, Acc. No. 118.609), trumpets (see Musée Calvet, Avignon, Acc. No. 166), and other ornamental objects, and only in the late twentieth century attributed by scholars to the Sierra Leone coast. One can easily see the stylistic similarity in the ivory carving, in the shape of the head, the form of the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, as well as many iconographical and decorative details." (Ancestors in Search of Descendants: Stone Effigies of the Ancient Sapi, Queensborough Community Art Gallery, The City University of New York, 2018, p. 22) Sapi figures of this size are extremely rare. For another oversized Sapi stone figure, also collected by Georges Rodriques in the 1970s but not as large (11 3/4in tall), see Sotheby's, New York, 11 May 2012, Lot 108, and another (7in tall) in the Jacob Epstein Collection before 1960, (Fagg, William, The Epstein Collection of Tribal and Exotic Sculpture, The Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1960, fig. 137)