Chamba Sculpture - Taraba State, Nigeria The towering wooden figure is defined by its radical verticality. A small head with schematically incised features and a high, comb-like hairstyle rises above a slender, elongated body on an unusually long neck. The shoulders form a compact curve from which extremely long arms fall almost parallel to the body; subtly marked hands complete the movement. Below the narrow torso, the legs transition into rhythmically bent, almost zigzag-shaped limbs. The dark brown, in places glossy, patina emphasizes the interplay of solid volumes and deep negative spaces. The figure appears less as an anatomical representation than as a tensely condensed human presence. The work belongs to the columnar tradition of Chamba sculpture in the central Benue region of present-day Nigeria, which includes parts of Taraba State. Comparable figures are characterized by arms held close to the body, foreshortened heads, and a pronounced vertical axis. Historically, such sculptures could be placed individually or as male-female pairs in sacred groves and associated with ancestors or spiritual powers; documented examples served in cults to ward off misfortune and received offerings. Literature (selection) Richard Fardon / Christine Stelzig: Column to Volume: Formal Innovation in Chamba Statuary. London 2005. Marla C. Berns / Richard Fardon / Sidney Littlefield Kasfir (eds.): Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley. Los Angeles 2011. Richard Fardon: Between God, the Dead and the Wild: Chamba Interpretations of Ritual and Religion. Edinburgh 1990. Some of the information is generated by artificial intelligence and is based on published sources from the fields of ethnography, archaeology, and art history. Inv. No. MAZ24378