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Lot #9299 - A Monumental Figure of an Anthropomorphic Crocodile Man Holding a Woman, Middle Sepik River Area, Papua New Guinea

  • Auction House:
    Theodore Bruce
  • Sale Name:
    Timed Online Auction | The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic and Asian Art | Day II
  • Sale Date:
    09 Aug 2022 ~ 6pm (AEST)
  • Lot #:
    9299
  • Lot Description:
    A Monumental Figure of an Anthropomorphic Crocodile Man Holding a Woman, Middle Sepik River Area, Papua New Guinea
    carved from a single large piece of timber, with ochre painted decorations and ground Conis shell eyes.
    L 236 cm W 43 cm
  • Provenance:
    Paulian Society Australia; The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic Art
  • Notes:
    This represents a myth or story of a woman taken into the river by a Crocodile Man Spirit. The Middle Sepik Communities have many stories and mythologies about Crocodiles; often they are sorcerers in disguise. Young men when initiated are given scarification on their bodies that look and represent crocodile's skin. According to Crispin Howarth at the NGA "Each community has its own artistic canon, history and cosmology. According to an origin myth of the Iatmul people, who live along the banks of the middle length of the river, the world was created by a primordial crocodile that swam everything into being. Every time the floods came, it was thought to be the primal crocodile settling down into the waters, as the land and the crocodile's back are one and the same. Earthquakes were signs that the crocodile was moving. The jaws of a crocodile symbolically represent this worldview: the upper jaw is the sky and all within it and the lower jaw is the land and the river and everything upon and in it.
  • Estimate:
    A$700 - 900
  • Realised Price:
    *****

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  • Category:
    Tribal

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.



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