117
FIGS. 5a–b (below):
Additional views of the
kavakava from fi gure 2.
a. (left): archives SS.CC. PAQ 6.
Photo: Michel Orliac.
b. (right): from the auction of April
17, 2009, at the Hôtel Drouot held
by Aguttes.
FIGS. 6a–c (right and below):
Male fi gure, kavakava. Easter
Island/Rapa Nui. Similar to the
d’Azy example in fi gure 2.
Wood. H: 52 cm.
Etnografski Muzej, Zagreb,
inv. EX1037.
classical work, its proportions place it at the style’s
upper chronological limit, and the use of a metal fi le
confi rms this dating. Moreover, kavakava bodies are
generally curved like those of old men. In most classical
examples, a virtual line drawn from the top of the
head to the middle of the soles of the feet passes outside
the rib cage. In order for that to be the case, the
sculptor sought out a naturally curved piece of wood
that was predisposed to his artistic intentions. However,
the piece of wood that was selected for the d’Azy
kavakava is more rectilinear, and the aforementioned
line would pass through the inside of the ribcage in
this example. This unusual characteristic is shared by
at least three other examples, including #350 in the
Oldman catalog,4 which is otherwise purely classical
in style. The other two, EX 1037 in Zagreb’s Etno-
grafski Muzej (fi g. 6) and #47751 in the Peabody Museum
at Harvard University (fi g. 7), are less detailed
but are also similar to the d’Azy kavakava in overall
manufacture and in the cranial glyph.
The Zagreb kavakava was given by Queen Pomare
IV of Tahiti in 1868 to Emile de la Roncière, the extremely
anti-clerical governor of French Oceania. His
widow, née de Tomekovic, gave it to the museum in
1876 (fi g. 6). It is roughly the same size as the d’Azy
fi gure and its cranial glyph, which represents an octopus,
is also comparable.
The Peabody Museum kavakava is quite similar to
the d’Azy example, and the collection also includes
a papa of identical manufacture. These two fi gures,
each of which has cranial incising representing an