Beschreibung:

A PAIR OF IFUGAO BULUL FIGURES Philippines 36.5 and 39 cm. high Provenienz PROPERTY FROM A DUTCH PRIVATE COLLECTION Amongst the Ifugao of Northern Luzon the principal ceremonial rituals are linked to the cultivation of rice. Bulul are rice deities responsible for support and protection during the main stages of sowing, harvest and the gathering of rice sheaves. The figures are kept in rice granaries where they acquire their characteristic sooty patina and are brought out for the ceremonies marking the end of the harvest. The priest (mumbaki) and his assistants seek benevolence and protection from the divinities, which the bulul embody, with the offer of blood sacrifice. Individual carvers found distinctive formal solutions within the constraints of a highly conventionalized style as can be seen in the present lot with its ingenious depiction of folded arms which defy anatomical naturalism to leave the frontal space open.