Beschreibung:

Gold-gilded bronze statue. 49 cm (height) x 18 cm (width) x 12 cm (depth) (19¼x7x4¾"). Outstanding and important museum-quality gold-gilded bronze Siraha Salawa, collected in 1993 on the Sumatra western coast opposite Nias Island of Indonesia. There remain numerous small communities of Nias people on the west coast of Sumatra as descendants of the slave trade that brought Nias people to Aceh and Padang between the 17th century and the mid-19th century. The present architect owner, while living for eight years in West Java with his cultural anthropologist wife, discovered this cire perdue bronze of a seated male. This piece was found on a foray into villages while driving from Lake Toba down the West Sumatra coast to Bukittinggi. It was bartered for personally by the present owner with the head of a small, remote native village in the vicinity of Sibolga, NW Sumatra. Only three other bronze Siraha Salawa effigies have been located with recent research, all in museums, including the Kulenovic Collection at the Volkenkunde Museum, the Netherlands. One possibly exists in a private collection. Upon viewing this bronze in 2011, Dr. Jerome Feldman, the internationally recognized expert in Nias art, went on to state that genuine Nias human figures are not only wooden, but the type of wood used has symbolic value that is as important to the indigenous meaning of the figures as the style. He further stated that in this case, “The style appears quite authentic, but the material arouses suspicion that it was not made for internal consumption.” It is known that during early Dutch colonial contact period, Nias sculptors made a few fine images for the discriminating tastes of European collectors. Perhaps this is what has happened here he went on to state. “They did make metal oil lamps that have deer decorating them but that is the closest thing I have ever seen to metal sculpture as such” according to Dr. Feldman. Dr. Feldman specifically noted it shows the golden crown, kalabubu necklace and earrings of royalty, not that of the common, Adu Zatua wooden non-royalty effigies. The piece’s worn gold gilt and the native wear markings including scribes on the backside, which likely mark yearly celebrations of the deceased passing, all convince as to the originality of the piece, he further stated. Age is unknown but, due to the provenance of its known finding in a remote, indigenous local, authentic signs of age, all convince of its originality. Coupled with the late 19th century European expositions this places the bronze Siraha Salawa’s origin date likely circa 1880 Ancestor veneration played a central role in the art and religion of the Ono Niha people of Nias Island. The ancestor images (adu), which housed the spirits of ancestors, protected the household, and allowed for communication between the human and supernatural worlds. Although all households had ancestor figures of Adu Zatua, but were by tradition, limited to only a single Siraha Salawa. The larger, more refined Siraha Salawa ancestor images, such as the seated male figure offered here, were restricted to the aristocracy, and represented remote and illustrious ancestors, often the founders of noble families or lineages. This figure wears the elaborate royal crown representing the tree-of-life as a vertical tapering central piece, reaching up towards the sky and other ornaments of gold that were the prerogative of only the high nobility. The male figure is holding a gold ceremonial cup in both hands which is for fertility. The kalabubu distinctive necklace marks his prowess as a warrior and was limited to men who had taken the head of an enemy. The gold ornaments and gilt signify a person of high rank and thought likely a famous noble warrior chief. Local traditional arts were naturally influenced by European interests for trading purposes. Objects were collected during scientific expeditions, and some commissioned specifically for large international exhibitions held in Eu