mbotumbo
Wood, organic material
Height 19 1/4in (49cm)

Provenance
Maria and Paul Wyss Collection, Basel
Distinguished Private Collection, Florida, acquired from the above, ca. 1970
Private Collection, Florida
Thence by descent
Cole Harrell, Harrell Fine Art, New York
Private Collection, New York

Cf. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 1978.412.468)
Christie's, Paris, 10 April 2019, lot 86
Christie's, New York, 12 May 2016, lot 604
Claessens, Bruno and Jean-Louis Danis, Baule Monkeys, Brussels, Fonds Mercator & Africarium,
2016, p. 151, fig.99

Notes on a Rediscovered Baule Monkey Figure
Bruno Claessens, January 2021

This rediscovered monkey figure presents an exciting new addition to a small corpus of known statues sculpted by one of the most virtuoso Baule artists to create such sculptures, the Master of the Double Auricle. In my three years of research for my book Baule Monkeys, published in 2008, I was able to identify five master artists. While sculptors had to follow a diviner's guidelines in creating a bowl-bearing figure, certain talented carvers introduced morphological elements unique to their artistic output. Such details manifested an artist's individuality, based on his tendency to repeat them throughout the different statues he would sculpt throughout his career. In my research I coined the nickname Master of the Double Auricle based on the stylistic signature unique for this sculptor at hand: his particular carving of the ear with the auricles resembling a double "C". A second unique trait of his style is the presence of cylindrical projections on each buttock – most probably representing the baboon's ischial callosities, or sitting pads. Other morphological elements further define this artist's hand: the rare presence of small nostrils, the prominent low-set cheek pouches, the hatched eyebrows protruding, the protuberant oval eyes and eyelids set deep in the eye sockets, the conspicuous teeth, a visible tongue, a curved lower jaw, thumbs curled to touch the index fingers, carved nails, a double row of rectangular keloids for a spine and a small penis. All these features are present in this rediscovered monkey, with the exception of the positioning of the thumb.

With only four statues attributed to the Master of the Double Auricle until present, the rediscovery of the Wyss monkey is an important art-historical event. The archetype of this style is a remarkable monkey figure, previously in the collection of Michael C. Rockefeller, is now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 1978.412.468). Here we find all the typical features of this master hand perfectly rendered, with a great sense for detail and precision. Its original polychrome on the eyes and mouth is still in pristine condition, and at three centimeters taller than the present figure, with the legs slightly more flexed, it has an even stronger sense of verticality. A second, very similar, figure was sold at Christie's, New York, 12 May 2016, lot 604. Once in the famous collection of Ferrari de la Salle, it presently resides in a private European collection. Although missing its feet and base, it displays the trademark features of the Master of the Double Auricle. The same rounded, hanging shoulders below a neck-less head can be found on a third well-known monkey figure in a Belgian private collection (Baule Monkeys, p. 151, fig. 99). Covered with a thick sacrificial crust, it can also be attributed to the same carver. A last statue that can be attributed to this master artist was previously in the collection of Maine Durieu and offered at auction in Paris at Christie's on 10 April 2019 (lot 86). As with the de la Salle monkey, it is missing its feet and base - a common damage with this type, which often was posed on the ground.

To understand the role these statues played within their communities, it is important to elaborate on the Baule worldview. The Baule world was populated by numerous supernatural powers that could positively or negatively influence human life. Amuin, such an invisible force, materialized in the form of a wooden simian-like figure. Such a monkey figure put the devotee in direct visual contact with something that would otherwise remain intangible. The explicit choice for a zoomorphic iconography placed this statue in the realm of the bush (blo), which the Baule associated with chaos, danger and the supernatural. A bowl-bearing figure like this would have led a hidden life within Baule society; few people were allowed in their sacred grove (bois sacré) in the bush; women and children were forbidden to see them. These monkey figures were not realistic depictions of the powers they would come to host. Essential were the raised forearms, and hands clasping a bowl or cupped to receive offerings – a functional reference to the frequent sacrifices needed to maintain the spirit's benevolence and cooperation. Important also was the vivid zoomorphism of the figure's head – in most cases referencing the baboon, a befitting association in the Baule mind as the animal was widely feared. Yet, the bowl-bearers are not direct representations of these monkeys, as witnessed by their standing position, which the baboon cannot hold.

Although essential to a Baule monkey is its container for offerings (generally a bowl clasped in the hands), offerings were not limited to the bowl – the whole body is often covered with remnants of sacrifices. The Amuin within the statue would protect its devotees from harm (failed harvests, fires, floods and epidemics), and grant their petitions, most frequently for good health and fertility (of both soil and women) only if it was provided with frequent sacrifices. The relationship between Amuin and its adherents was reciprocal; the spirit's benevolence depended on the worship and the offerings received from its followers. Although the primary role of an Amuin was protective – at both the individual and the collective levels – frequent and appropriate veneration was essential for the force not to turn against its beneficiaries. A diviner mediated between people and Amuin, which then through the statue, dictated to the petitioner instructions and solutions. A sacrifice accompanied such requests. One defining characteristic of an Amuin was its need for blood offerings. Both during collective ceremonies and in imploring personal favors, domestic animals (such as chickens, sheep and cattle) were sacrificed and their blood was sprinkled abundantly on the statue to increase its potency. The nature of the sacrifice depended on the importance of the petition. Additionally, eggs were regularly deposited in the bowl clenched in the hands of the statue to please the Amuin.

The zoomorphic head gives the statues a powerful and fearsome appearance. In contrast to the refinement and harmony of the anthropomorphic Baule figures, the counter-aesthetic elements – such as their 'dirty' surface, covered with a layer of sacrificial residue – were deliberate. The emphasis on the awe-inspiring was essential for the figure to convey the fear and respect necessary to perform the regulating functions of village life that were expected from the statue. Although foreign to this formal language and ritual context, the Western eye is still able to experience the intimidation conveyed by this iconography.