ART ON VIEW
84
FIG. 18 (above):
Amulet. Sakalava, Ambato-
Boeni, Madagascar.
Wood, metal, glass beads, textile,
organic materials. H: 18 cm.
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac, inv. 71.1929.1.61.
Photo: Thierry Ollivier, Michel Urtado.
FIG. 19 (left):
Amulet. Bara Imamono,
Madagascar.
Wood, glass beads, vegetal fi ber.
H: 14 cm.
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac, inv. 71.1891.45.61.
Photo: Thierry Ollivier, Michel Urtado.
FIG. 20 (right):
Bowl with circular base.
Vohemar, Madagascar.
Before 1965.
Porcelain. D: 19 cm.
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac, inv. 71.1965.4.112.
Photo: Claude Germain.
fers, lamps, wickerwork etuis and baskets (fi g. 21),
headdresses, and other objects intended for domestic
use have remarkable design qualities. They constitute
a group of utilitarian objects that also have a relationship
with the sacred, which is omnipresent in the
Madagascan universe. Personal ornaments are more
than jewelry. They are individualized objects that protect
their wearers while also occupying a unique place
in art history. The same is true of textiles: The lambas,
large rectangular wrap skirts that are worn by
the living and also used to shroud the dead, evoke the
connections between the tangible world and that of
the ancestors (fi gs. 8 and 9). They are also among the
most extraordinary and ancient yet least well-known
artistic creations of Madagascar. Made of cotton, silk,
raffi a, or even recovered materials (copper wires from
electrical cables, magnetic bands, paper, etc. in the
case of contemporary pieces by Madame Zo), these
are a highlight of the installation. Another impressive
group of charms, amulets, and talismans generically
known as ody offers insight into the arts of divination
and protection (fi gs. 16–19). These composite objects
are intended both to diagnose problems
or desires and to provide remedies and
even ways of turning destiny to one’s
advantage. By virtue of their composition,
they are objects that stand as
proof of the knowledge of the ombiasy,
the healer-diviner. This was a
fi gure that every person, from the
most humble individual to the sovereign,
would have contact with to
manage his destiny and to redirect it
if signs were unfavorable.
The diffi culty that even a comprehensive
exhibition like this one faces is to
provide a complete account of ten centuries
of art history. The great majority of the pieces
selected for this show were drawn from national
collections, while certain essential examples were
borrowed from private collections to complete the
corpus. The Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
inherited its collection of Madagascan art from
the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro, which
is largely material collected at the end of the nineteenth
century, and from the merger of the collection
of the Musée de l’Homme with that of the former
Musée des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, in which
the Madagascan collection was grouped with Aus-