A beautiful ancient statuette, a perfect archetypal example of an ancient Mumuyé statue: with its short, geometric legs, its arms wrapping around and circling the body, whose arched back seems to shrink to make room for angular elbows, which are as emblematic of Mumuyé sculpture as its head with a face as expressive as it is naive, with its eyes in two engraved circles tinted white, not forgetting the headdress and the two appendages on either side of the round head, which we never know how to attribute, and whether they are ears or braids, which are sometimes carved with openwork. The mouth is very expressive here, carved in a very clean, geometric way, following a solid ancient tradition. Mumuye, Nigeria Wood, pigments, very fine old oxidation of the wood, wear, old erosion at the umbilicus, old cracks, very fine old patina. H. 54.5 cm Provenance : Yves Develon, Paris Private collection, Paris