A SUPERB ANTHROPOMORPHIC LIME SPATULA, MASSIM

Estimated Value:

6.000 € - 10.000 €

Result:

14.245 € incl. Premium and VAT

Description:

Papua New Guinea
L. 26,2 cm
Harry Beran (1935 - 2021) commented on a very similar spatula offered at Sotheby's on 3.12.2009 as follows: 'From India to Southeast Asia to Melanesia, ten percent of the world's population chews betel nut. Artists from the Massim region are responsible for the most elegant and beautiful lime spatulas used in this universe of betel consumers. The spatulas carved by the master of prominent eyes are among the most remarkable Massim specimens. The spatula offered in 2009 is the one newly identified work since my article "The Master of the Prominent Eyes" (1997), which deals with the personal style of this artist and in which ten - probably eleven - spatulas are illustrated by his hand. Three of them are also published in Beran (1988, figs. 11-13). Seven of these styles are discussed in Beran (1966: 195-201). The sculptures of the Master of the Prominent Eyes are on the most naturalistic edge of this continuum. They apparently come from the southern part of the Massim region, where this spatula is also said to have originated. Other naturalistic spatulas collected early and published several times include, in particular, two works preserved in the British Museum, one taking the form of a wallaby kangaroo and the other that of a praying mantis (Newton 1975: figs. 13-14; Beran 1988: figs. 35 and 41; and Bounoure 1993 : 174-5). Some of the spatulas of the Master of Prominent Eyes were collected at the end of the 19th century and many of them have a patina so deep that it testifies to decades of use. The artist would therefore have begun sculpting in the mid-19th century or very early thereafter. His spatulas are of exceptional interest, both for their sculptural quality and for the variety of postures adopted by the figures, which offer a repertoire richer than that of any other Massim master whose individual style has been identified.
Talented woodcarvers developed their own variations of Massim art, and many individual styles that emerged from anonymous artists or artists' studios can be identified today. They range from highly stylised to semi-naturalistic styles. Some lime spatulas had a function that went far beyond their practical use - namely, to transfer the lime from the pot to the mouth.According to Narubutau, the last famous chief of Yalumgwa village in Kiriwina, those who mastered the appropriate magic could make a tree spirit, Tokwai, occupy the anthropomorphic figure of his spatula to protect him (Beran 1988: 19). We do not know whether this practice was also common in the southern part of the Massim region, but if so, the spatula with figure shown here could have the same meaning. The Master of Prominent Eyes also carved a mother cradling a baby on two spatulas (Beran, 1997: figs. 11-12), and two related figures on another, the smaller one standing in front of the other (ditto: fig. 13). It seems unlikely that such complex compositions were carved to serve as a vessel for a spirit, but we do not know what social significance they might have had.
Important Bavarian private collection, purchased priot 2007

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