A bronze sculpture - Fon - Benin (No reserve price)
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Selected by Dimitri André
Holds a postgraduate degree in African studies and 15 years experience in African art.
Estimate € 230 - € 270
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This original Fon bronze sculpture from Benin, titled “A bronze sculpture”, stands 12 cm high and is accompanied by a display stand.
AI-assisted summary
Description from the seller
Fon – Anthropomorphic Aluminium Figure with Outstretched Arms
Origin: Fon, Republic of Benin, West Africa
Material: Aluminium, patinated surface
Height: 12 cm
Weight: 280 g, including stand
Dating: Undetermined
Inventory Number: Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke, MAZ34718
Description
This small, fully sculpted metal figure represents a standing human figure with widely extended, slightly bent arms. Its slender proportions, elongated neck, and pronounced waist lend the sculpture a remarkable sense of elegance. The highly stylised hands terminate in broad, crescent-shaped forms, each accompanied by an additional finger-like projection. The relatively large head features prominent eyes, strongly defined eyebrows, a pronounced nose, and an open mouth. Protruding ears further emphasise the expressive character of the face. The closely cropped hairstyle is articulated through numerous small, irregularly arranged indentations. The unclothed upper body displays subtly modelled pectoral features and a V-shaped incised element beneath the neck, possibly representing an ornament or necklace. Particularly striking is the accentuated hip area, with laterally projecting forms and a bell-shaped skirt extending towards the knees. Both the front and back of the skirt are decorated with vertical ornamental panels consisting of closely spaced incisions and geometric patterns. The short, sturdy legs terminate in comparatively large feet with individually indicated toes. The figure is mounted on a separate black display stand. Its surface exhibits a varied brown to grey-green coloration, contributing to its distinctive visual character.
Art Historical Context
On the basis of its stated cultural attribution and formal characteristics, this sculpture may be considered within the broader tradition of figurative metalwork associated with the Fon peoples of present-day Benin. The historical Kingdom of Dahomey developed a sophisticated tradition of metalworking that encompassed objects of royal representation, commemorative sculpture, and works associated with religious practices. Particularly significant within this tradition are the objects known as Asen, metal ancestral altars incorporating figurative elements that could commemorate the lives, social standing, and achievements of deceased individuals. Alongside these sacred and memorial objects, metalworkers produced representations of individuals, ceremonial activities, and aspects of everyday life, initially for local patrons and, increasingly, for the art market. The present sculpture shares certain formal characteristics with this broader artistic tradition. Its compact proportions, simplified anatomical treatment, and expressive arm gestures recall figurative components found in West African metal assemblages. An original function as an element of an Asen altar is conceivable, although such an attribution cannot be established without historical documentation or technical examination. Comparable aluminium figures have occasionally been described within the art market as Asen figures. The use of aluminium suggests the availability of an industrially produced metal, but does not, by itself, permit a reliable chronological attribution.
Iconography and Possible Ritual Function
The extended arms constitute the principal expressive feature of the sculpture. The unusually shaped hands may suggest a gesture of receiving, presenting, or invoking. Alternatively, the posture might refer to dance or ceremonial movement. The open mouth reinforces the impression of an active figure and could be interpreted as an indication of speech, singing, or ritual communication. However, no specific action can be securely identified. Within Fon religious traditions, relationships between the living, ancestral spirits, and supernatural forces occupy an important position. Figurative representations could serve in different contexts as commemorative images, protective objects, or components of religious installations. In her fundamental study of Vodun art, Suzanne Preston Blier examined the complex relationships between artistic form, psychological expression, and spiritual meaning in Fon visual culture. Nevertheless, the present figure displays no unmistakable attributes identifying it with a particular deity or spiritual entity. An identification as a Bocio protective figure would therefore remain speculative. The decorated garment may indicate social distinction, ceremonial identity, or simply reflect the sculptor's interest in ornamental elaboration.
Condition
Based on the available photographs, the figure appears to be in generally good condition, with visible surface alterations consistent with age, handling, or environmental exposure. The metal exhibits irregular brown patination interspersed with greyish and occasionally greenish discoloration. Minor abrasions, scratches, small surface depressions, and variations in sheen are particularly noticeable on the head, arms, and torso. Certain raised areas appear more extensively polished or worn. The incised decorative patterns on the skirt remain clearly distinguishable, while the facial features and textured hairstyle retain their sculptural definition. No major fractures, conspicuous replacements, or substantial losses can be identified with certainty from the photographs. The unusual configuration of the hands appears more likely to reflect the original artistic conception than subsequent damage. Without technical analysis, however, the surface alterations cannot be reliably dated or conclusively identified as natural corrosion. The black stand is a modern presentation element.
Art Historical Appreciation
The particular artistic quality of this small metal sculpture lies in its combination of formal economy and animated physical presence. While the slender torso and short legs establish a stable vertical axis, the extended arms generate a dynamic movement through space. The expressive face, with its open mouth and strongly articulated features, gives the figure an almost vocal presence. The carefully executed decoration of the skirt creates an effective contrast with the comparatively smooth treatment of the body. Despite its modest dimensions, the sculpture achieves a remarkable sense of monumentality. As an example of figurative metalwork attributed to the Fon cultural sphere, it reflects important aesthetic principles associated with West African sculpture: the concentration on essential characteristics, the expressive potential of gesture, and the deliberate exaggeration of selected anatomical forms. Its visual impact emerges not from naturalistic accuracy but from the interaction between simplified volumes, ornamental detail, and bodily expression.
Literature
Suzanne Preston Blier: African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1995. A fundamental study of Fon religious art and visual symbolism; not a documented reference to the present object.
Copyright and Scientific Documentation
Some of the information and photographs have been generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and are based on published sources in ethnography, archaeology, and art history. Original texts and photographs may be protected by copyright. All rights held by the respective rights holders are reserved.
Seller's Story
Wolfgang Jaenicke’s engagement with African art did not begin in the field or the marketplace but in a quieter, more inward space—among papers, books, and objects that belonged to his father. The archive on Germany’s former colonies was not arranged to tell a single story; it suggested many. It invited scrutiny rather than reverence, and it taught Jaenicke early on that objects are never mute. They carry time inside them—fracture and continuity held in the same form—and they ask to be read as carefully as texts.
For more than a quarter century, Jaenicke has worked as a collector, dealer, and intermediary, though none of these terms quite captures the shape of his practice. What used to be grouped, too casually, under the heading of “Tribal Art” has never appeared to him as a sealed or historical category. It is, instead, a set of living traditions, constantly negotiating the present. His academic training—in ethnology, art history, and comparative law—provided a grammar. The language itself he learned elsewhere. In Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Ghana, knowledge emerged slowly, through repeated encounters that hardened into relationships, and through trust built not all at once but over years.
Mali became the gravitational center of this experience. Between 2002 and 2012, Jaenicke lived and worked in Bamako and Ségou, where he ran Tribalartforum, a gallery overlooking the Niger River. The space resisted easy chronology. Sculptures and ceramics shared the room with photography, and works by Malick Sidibé—images of Malian youth in the 1970s, self-assured and exuberant—hung alongside older ritual forms. The effect was not nostalgic but clarifying: past and present did not cancel each other out; they sharpened one another.
The war of 2012 ended this chapter abruptly, as wars tend to do. But it did not dissolve the work. Together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke regrouped in Lomé, closer to the places where many of the objects originated and to the routes they continue to travel. Since 2018, Berlin has become another point on this map. Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke now operates opposite Charlottenburg Palace, supported by a small team of specialists. Its focus rests, in particular, on West African bronzes and terracottas—materials shaped by earth and fire, and by forms of memory that resist easy translation.
What distinguishes Jaenicke’s practice is not only its geographical range but its internal tension. Fieldwork is paired with provenance research; commerce is treated as inseparable from responsibility. In collaboration with museums and scholarly initiatives, circulation is framed not as extraction but as an ethical process that remains unfinished. The aim is not to remove objects from the world and seal them off, but to keep them readable within it—to allow them to continue speaking, even as the conditions of their speech change.
------------
Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke is a Berlin-based gallery specializing in West African sculpture, bronzes, terracottas, masks, and contemporary African art. It is directed by Wolfgang Jaenicke, whose work combines collecting, dealing, provenance research, fieldwork, and archival documentation.
According to the gallery’s own account, Jaenicke studied ethnology, art history, and comparative law and has worked in the field of African art for more than twenty-five years. His activities developed through long-term engagement in countries including Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo. Rather than presenting African art as a closed historical category, he describes it as a continuing cultural tradition shaped by living communities and changing historical contexts.
A particularly important phase of his career was in Mali, where he lived and worked between roughly 2002 and 2012 in Bamako and Ségou. There he operated Tribalartforum, a gallery that combined historical African sculpture with contemporary African photography, including works by Malick Sidibé. The political and military crisis in Mali in 2012 led to the closure of this phase of activity.
Later, together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke continued working from Lomé, Togo, before establishing a gallery presence in Berlin near Charlottenburg Palace. The gallery places particular emphasis on West African bronzes, terracottas, Benin and Ife-related works, Nok sculpture, Dogon art, Baule sculpture, Senufo objects, and Yoruba material.
One distinctive aspect of Jaenicke’s public position is his repeated emphasis on provenance transparency and restitution debates. On several published object records, the gallery explicitly discusses issues surrounding export documentation, UNESCO conventions, ownership histories, and communication with scholars and restitution researchers. These statements reflect broader contemporary debates about the circulation of African cultural heritage, legality, collecting history, and museum acquisition practices.
The gallery maintains extensive online archives and catalogues documenting hundreds of African objects, including Benin and Ife bronzes, Nok terracottas, Dogon sculptures, Baule figures, Fon objects, Moba figures, and other West African material.
For researchers interested in the history of the African art trade, Jaenicke represents a later generation of dealers compared with figures such as John J. Klejman. Whereas Klejman belonged to the postwar New York market of the 1950s–1970s, Jaenicke’s work has been shaped by contemporary concerns with field documentation, provenance research, restitution discussions, digital archives, and direct engagement with West African networks and artists.
This text is based on AI Information
Fon – Anthropomorphic Aluminium Figure with Outstretched Arms
Origin: Fon, Republic of Benin, West Africa
Material: Aluminium, patinated surface
Height: 12 cm
Weight: 280 g, including stand
Dating: Undetermined
Inventory Number: Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke, MAZ34718
Description
This small, fully sculpted metal figure represents a standing human figure with widely extended, slightly bent arms. Its slender proportions, elongated neck, and pronounced waist lend the sculpture a remarkable sense of elegance. The highly stylised hands terminate in broad, crescent-shaped forms, each accompanied by an additional finger-like projection. The relatively large head features prominent eyes, strongly defined eyebrows, a pronounced nose, and an open mouth. Protruding ears further emphasise the expressive character of the face. The closely cropped hairstyle is articulated through numerous small, irregularly arranged indentations. The unclothed upper body displays subtly modelled pectoral features and a V-shaped incised element beneath the neck, possibly representing an ornament or necklace. Particularly striking is the accentuated hip area, with laterally projecting forms and a bell-shaped skirt extending towards the knees. Both the front and back of the skirt are decorated with vertical ornamental panels consisting of closely spaced incisions and geometric patterns. The short, sturdy legs terminate in comparatively large feet with individually indicated toes. The figure is mounted on a separate black display stand. Its surface exhibits a varied brown to grey-green coloration, contributing to its distinctive visual character.
Art Historical Context
On the basis of its stated cultural attribution and formal characteristics, this sculpture may be considered within the broader tradition of figurative metalwork associated with the Fon peoples of present-day Benin. The historical Kingdom of Dahomey developed a sophisticated tradition of metalworking that encompassed objects of royal representation, commemorative sculpture, and works associated with religious practices. Particularly significant within this tradition are the objects known as Asen, metal ancestral altars incorporating figurative elements that could commemorate the lives, social standing, and achievements of deceased individuals. Alongside these sacred and memorial objects, metalworkers produced representations of individuals, ceremonial activities, and aspects of everyday life, initially for local patrons and, increasingly, for the art market. The present sculpture shares certain formal characteristics with this broader artistic tradition. Its compact proportions, simplified anatomical treatment, and expressive arm gestures recall figurative components found in West African metal assemblages. An original function as an element of an Asen altar is conceivable, although such an attribution cannot be established without historical documentation or technical examination. Comparable aluminium figures have occasionally been described within the art market as Asen figures. The use of aluminium suggests the availability of an industrially produced metal, but does not, by itself, permit a reliable chronological attribution.
Iconography and Possible Ritual Function
The extended arms constitute the principal expressive feature of the sculpture. The unusually shaped hands may suggest a gesture of receiving, presenting, or invoking. Alternatively, the posture might refer to dance or ceremonial movement. The open mouth reinforces the impression of an active figure and could be interpreted as an indication of speech, singing, or ritual communication. However, no specific action can be securely identified. Within Fon religious traditions, relationships between the living, ancestral spirits, and supernatural forces occupy an important position. Figurative representations could serve in different contexts as commemorative images, protective objects, or components of religious installations. In her fundamental study of Vodun art, Suzanne Preston Blier examined the complex relationships between artistic form, psychological expression, and spiritual meaning in Fon visual culture. Nevertheless, the present figure displays no unmistakable attributes identifying it with a particular deity or spiritual entity. An identification as a Bocio protective figure would therefore remain speculative. The decorated garment may indicate social distinction, ceremonial identity, or simply reflect the sculptor's interest in ornamental elaboration.
Condition
Based on the available photographs, the figure appears to be in generally good condition, with visible surface alterations consistent with age, handling, or environmental exposure. The metal exhibits irregular brown patination interspersed with greyish and occasionally greenish discoloration. Minor abrasions, scratches, small surface depressions, and variations in sheen are particularly noticeable on the head, arms, and torso. Certain raised areas appear more extensively polished or worn. The incised decorative patterns on the skirt remain clearly distinguishable, while the facial features and textured hairstyle retain their sculptural definition. No major fractures, conspicuous replacements, or substantial losses can be identified with certainty from the photographs. The unusual configuration of the hands appears more likely to reflect the original artistic conception than subsequent damage. Without technical analysis, however, the surface alterations cannot be reliably dated or conclusively identified as natural corrosion. The black stand is a modern presentation element.
Art Historical Appreciation
The particular artistic quality of this small metal sculpture lies in its combination of formal economy and animated physical presence. While the slender torso and short legs establish a stable vertical axis, the extended arms generate a dynamic movement through space. The expressive face, with its open mouth and strongly articulated features, gives the figure an almost vocal presence. The carefully executed decoration of the skirt creates an effective contrast with the comparatively smooth treatment of the body. Despite its modest dimensions, the sculpture achieves a remarkable sense of monumentality. As an example of figurative metalwork attributed to the Fon cultural sphere, it reflects important aesthetic principles associated with West African sculpture: the concentration on essential characteristics, the expressive potential of gesture, and the deliberate exaggeration of selected anatomical forms. Its visual impact emerges not from naturalistic accuracy but from the interaction between simplified volumes, ornamental detail, and bodily expression.
Literature
Suzanne Preston Blier: African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1995. A fundamental study of Fon religious art and visual symbolism; not a documented reference to the present object.
Copyright and Scientific Documentation
Some of the information and photographs have been generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and are based on published sources in ethnography, archaeology, and art history. Original texts and photographs may be protected by copyright. All rights held by the respective rights holders are reserved.
Seller's Story
Wolfgang Jaenicke’s engagement with African art did not begin in the field or the marketplace but in a quieter, more inward space—among papers, books, and objects that belonged to his father. The archive on Germany’s former colonies was not arranged to tell a single story; it suggested many. It invited scrutiny rather than reverence, and it taught Jaenicke early on that objects are never mute. They carry time inside them—fracture and continuity held in the same form—and they ask to be read as carefully as texts.
For more than a quarter century, Jaenicke has worked as a collector, dealer, and intermediary, though none of these terms quite captures the shape of his practice. What used to be grouped, too casually, under the heading of “Tribal Art” has never appeared to him as a sealed or historical category. It is, instead, a set of living traditions, constantly negotiating the present. His academic training—in ethnology, art history, and comparative law—provided a grammar. The language itself he learned elsewhere. In Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Ghana, knowledge emerged slowly, through repeated encounters that hardened into relationships, and through trust built not all at once but over years.
Mali became the gravitational center of this experience. Between 2002 and 2012, Jaenicke lived and worked in Bamako and Ségou, where he ran Tribalartforum, a gallery overlooking the Niger River. The space resisted easy chronology. Sculptures and ceramics shared the room with photography, and works by Malick Sidibé—images of Malian youth in the 1970s, self-assured and exuberant—hung alongside older ritual forms. The effect was not nostalgic but clarifying: past and present did not cancel each other out; they sharpened one another.
The war of 2012 ended this chapter abruptly, as wars tend to do. But it did not dissolve the work. Together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke regrouped in Lomé, closer to the places where many of the objects originated and to the routes they continue to travel. Since 2018, Berlin has become another point on this map. Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke now operates opposite Charlottenburg Palace, supported by a small team of specialists. Its focus rests, in particular, on West African bronzes and terracottas—materials shaped by earth and fire, and by forms of memory that resist easy translation.
What distinguishes Jaenicke’s practice is not only its geographical range but its internal tension. Fieldwork is paired with provenance research; commerce is treated as inseparable from responsibility. In collaboration with museums and scholarly initiatives, circulation is framed not as extraction but as an ethical process that remains unfinished. The aim is not to remove objects from the world and seal them off, but to keep them readable within it—to allow them to continue speaking, even as the conditions of their speech change.
------------
Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke is a Berlin-based gallery specializing in West African sculpture, bronzes, terracottas, masks, and contemporary African art. It is directed by Wolfgang Jaenicke, whose work combines collecting, dealing, provenance research, fieldwork, and archival documentation.
According to the gallery’s own account, Jaenicke studied ethnology, art history, and comparative law and has worked in the field of African art for more than twenty-five years. His activities developed through long-term engagement in countries including Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo. Rather than presenting African art as a closed historical category, he describes it as a continuing cultural tradition shaped by living communities and changing historical contexts.
A particularly important phase of his career was in Mali, where he lived and worked between roughly 2002 and 2012 in Bamako and Ségou. There he operated Tribalartforum, a gallery that combined historical African sculpture with contemporary African photography, including works by Malick Sidibé. The political and military crisis in Mali in 2012 led to the closure of this phase of activity.
Later, together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke continued working from Lomé, Togo, before establishing a gallery presence in Berlin near Charlottenburg Palace. The gallery places particular emphasis on West African bronzes, terracottas, Benin and Ife-related works, Nok sculpture, Dogon art, Baule sculpture, Senufo objects, and Yoruba material.
One distinctive aspect of Jaenicke’s public position is his repeated emphasis on provenance transparency and restitution debates. On several published object records, the gallery explicitly discusses issues surrounding export documentation, UNESCO conventions, ownership histories, and communication with scholars and restitution researchers. These statements reflect broader contemporary debates about the circulation of African cultural heritage, legality, collecting history, and museum acquisition practices.
The gallery maintains extensive online archives and catalogues documenting hundreds of African objects, including Benin and Ife bronzes, Nok terracottas, Dogon sculptures, Baule figures, Fon objects, Moba figures, and other West African material.
For researchers interested in the history of the African art trade, Jaenicke represents a later generation of dealers compared with figures such as John J. Klejman. Whereas Klejman belonged to the postwar New York market of the 1950s–1970s, Jaenicke’s work has been shaped by contemporary concerns with field documentation, provenance research, restitution discussions, digital archives, and direct engagement with West African networks and artists.
This text is based on AI Information
Details
Ethnic group/ culture
Fon
Country of Origin
Benin
Material
Bronze
Sold with stand
Yes
Condition
Fair condition
Title of artwork
A bronze sculpture
Height
12 cm
Weight
280 g
Authenticity
Original/official
Sold by
GermanyVerified
protop
Rechtliche Informationen des Verkäufers
- Unternehmen:
- Jaenicke Njoya GmbH
- Repräsentant:
- Wolfgang Jaenicke
- Adresse:
- Jaenicke Njoya GmbH
Klausenerplatz 7
14059 Berlin
GERMANY - Telefonnummer:
- +493033951033
- Email:
- w.jaenicke@jaenicke-njoya.com
- USt-IdNr.:
- DE241193499
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