Iko, Dewinjisri, ca. 1910 – 1930, teak, 32 x 18 x 18 cm, (no image available).
Offered on Catawiki in June 2024 and purchased by a private individual from Indonesia. The name “Dewinjisri” and “Iko” are engraved on the back of the statuette, at the top of the pedestal. The bottom of the pedestal is unmarked. This statuette depicts a personification of the fertility goddess worshipped in Java and Bali as dewi sri or nji sri (Kertonegoro, The Javanese & Balinese Wayang Figures, 52-53). Iko, therefore, combined both names. This Iko statuette may depict the rice goddess Iko made for the Van Meurs Commission, but this cannot be confirmed with certainty. The woman wears a sarong with a batik motif. Her bodice also features a batik motif, and she wears a belt with a floral pattern around her waist. A long batik sash appears to extend below her belt, falling in two strips along the sarong at both the front and back. Her arms hang down alongside her body. She wears rings on both hands, bracelets on both arms, and ornaments on her upper arm. She also wears a piece of jewelry around her neck, from which a chain runs across her chest, hooked to her belt. She also wears a traditional headdress. The goddess’s long hair is visible at the back of the statue. There are more statues of this rice goddess in museum collections, often of anonymous origin, such as an anonymously painted statue in the collection of the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (Collectie Wereldmuseum, “Houten beeld van een godin”).


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