Provenance: Jean Louis Levi / Likha Antiques

ABOUT THE WORK

This pair comes closest to establishing a classical/ canonical style from the Lagawe region of Ifugao. The flat faces with only the simplest of indentions, the strong flat backs, the cylindrical legs and arms interconnecting to define a strong, compact seated figure. There is a light encrustation of soot all over the figures, except in places where the dark red grain of the narra wood is exposed. The encrustation is thickest at the top of the heads of both figures, the crust nearly obscuring the wooden pegs that once held strands of hair in place. In the absence of carved genitalia, we can determine which is the male through the open space between the buttocks, where the loincloth would have passed. This pair would have been dressed, the male in miniature loincloth, the female in wrap skirt, their heads covered with human hair appropriate and indicative of their sex. When in ritual use during the rice harvest, stalks of rice, heavy with grain would have been, inserted into the pierced ears. But all these have fallen away over time, leaving only the sophisticated purity of the sculpture.