Southern Tanzania, near the Mozambique border, circa 1930s
Wood
9 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches (24.1 x 39.4 cm)
Provenance: Bryan Reeves, London
The figure is carved in relief against a plain cross cut from the same block, the arms extended along the crossbar with the hands worked as small flattened forms and the feet crossed at the base. The head tilts forward with the eyes closed and the features cut in low broad planes, and across the brow runs a narrow band of chevrons in place of the crown of thorns. Below the waist a short skirt is indicated by a raised hem and a few vertical strokes, the legs run straight and unmodeled to the platform beneath, and a pierced hole at the top of the cross shows where it was hung.
Crucifixes of this kind were made in the far south of Tanzania toward the Mozambique border, where local carvers took up Christian subjects for household use and rendered them in the sculptural vocabulary already in hand. The figure is treated with the frontality and the compressed proportions of regional carving rather than after a European model, and the chevron band and the skirt are local substitutions for the conventional attributes. The surface is worn smooth across the face, the chest, and the crossbar in the pattern left by handling rather than by tooling.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Southern Tanzania, near the Mozambique border, circa 1930s
Wood
9 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches (24.1 x 39.4 cm)
Provenance: Bryan Reeves, London
The figure is carved in relief against a plain cross cut from the same block, the arms extended along the crossbar with the hands worked as small flattened forms and the feet crossed at the base. The head tilts forward with the eyes closed and the features cut in low broad planes, and across the brow runs a narrow band of chevrons in place of the crown of thorns. Below the waist a short skirt is indicated by a raised hem and a few vertical strokes, the legs run straight and unmodeled to the platform beneath, and a pierced hole at the top of the cross shows where it was hung.
Crucifixes of this kind were made in the far south of Tanzania toward the Mozambique border, where local carvers took up Christian subjects for household use and rendered them in the sculptural vocabulary already in hand. The figure is treated with the frontality and the compressed proportions of regional carving rather than after a European model, and the chevron band and the skirt are local substitutions for the conventional attributes. The surface is worn smooth across the face, the chest, and the crossbar in the pattern left by handling rather than by tooling.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
