These posts have been vetted as being authentic with significant signs of use and age.
Boccio 1 38" high $1500 |
Boccio 3 29.5" high $1500 |
Boccio 4 29" high $1200 |
Boccio 21 21" high $1200 |
Boccio 22 19.5" high $1000 |
Boccio 24 19" high $1000
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The posts below have been vetted as being authentic with signs of use and age.
Boccio 23 20" high $700 |
Boccio 20 21.5" high $500 |
Boccio 30 17" high $250 |
Boccio 33 15" high $400 |
Boccio figure posts like these were placed outdoors and sunk into the earth, becoming wonderfully aged by exposure. Despite their small scale, they seem to gain a spiritual monumentality from being fused with the earth. Standing at the entrance of a village, a courtyard, a house, or a shrine, they served a protective function, barring the entrance of evil spirits.
These were not portraits or specific spirits, rather, the carved figure in human form is a repository or decoy for a spiritual force. In this instance the carved figure is a kind of substitute or stalking horse for the people it is meant to protect. Here, as in much African art, the form of the sculpture is related more to ideas about reality, both visible and invisible, than to the literal representation of nature.
These Boccio posts were often crudely worked. Many are carved by self-taught sculptors and lack refinement. Appropriate to their nature, which is nonhuman and nonspecific, and to their exposure to the elements, Boccio figure posts seldom have individual characteristics or individual human embellishments such as coiffures or scarification.
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