Ancestor Figure from a Small Village Shrine
Ngada Culture, Flores, Eastern Nusa Tenggara Islands, Indonesia
A fairly heavy and hard wood
Possibly 19th Century
19.5”H (49.5 cm) x 6.5”W (16.5cm) x 5.5”D (14cm)
Probably cut from atop a memorial post
This female ancestor figure (the males were termed Ana Deo and couples were common) shows some similarity to a Flores figure (‘Ngada Culture’) in the Yale Museum (promised donation of Th. Jaffe).
Similarities with the few published Flores examples include: posture, hollow eyes, prominent genitalia, and the wood and its aging (including oddly scraped/eroded surface, especially constricted around the neck). Regionally and aesthetically, the backwards arms/elbows are reminiscent of Ata Oro figures and the eyes of Timor figures.
When acquired from an eccentric old private collection some years ago, attached was a label, now lost, reading ‘Nusa Tenggara’. More than 500 islands comprise this archipelago stretching between Bali and Timor, north of Sunda, and including Komodo Island where the famed, huge reptilian Komodo Dragons prowl.
$3500
