Beschreibung:

asie usu height 18 1/2in (47cm) Provenance William W. Brill Collection, New York Private Collection, New York According to Susan Vogel 'Although asye usu [bush spirits] are horrible looking and inhuman, their figures are carved in the form of ideal, beautiful human beings in their prime. People who have spotted asye usu in the bush describe them as physically immoderate--perhaps huge, perhaps tiny as a statuette, having long limbs or only one arm or leg, or with feet that turn backward, or huge mops of pale hair covering their faces, or a face with only one eye. They are usually filthy, but they may also be covered with gold ornaments. Some people told me that if the sculpture was not beautiful, it would not be efficacious, for the asye usu would refuse to come and "sit" on it. They also felt that the spirit might be offended by an ugly figure and harm the carver or the owner.' (Baule - African Art Western Eyes, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1997, p. 231) Finely carved in hard wood in an overall delicate and attenuated composition, the present figure is finely balanced with her feet firmly curving over the rounded base, legs slightly bent at the knees with her calves lightly swollen, her torso with pendulous breasts and proportionally long arms held closely alongside with the hands resting on her enlarged abdomen with protruding umbilicus, the extended cylindrical neck supporting her head with a finely incised coiffure designed with a sagittal crest and a domed back with a short braided element hanging down; delicate rounded ears frame the face with tranquil almond-shaped eyes, an attenuated nose and slightly pursed lips; intricate and finely carved raised scarification highlight the front and back of the torso, back of the neck and face; wearing a band of glass beads around the neck and waist; encrusted dark brown ritual patination showing evidence of significant cultural use and age.