Djenné Anthropomorphic Terracotta Figure, Inland Niger Delta Region, Mali

A Report on Thermoluminescence from the Research Laboratory for Archeology and the History of Art, Oxford, dated December 7th, 1979, states that sample "281r23" was last fired between 525 and 715 years ago (1264-1454 AD).

Philippe Guimiot, Brussels, by 1979
Martin Lerner, New York, acquired from the above in December 1984 or January 1985

Philippe Guimiot (adv.), African Arts, Vol. XV, No. 1, November 1981, p. 89, inside back cover

Excellent condition for an object of this rare type and great age. Pierced under arms for hanging as a pendant (original). Minor surface marks, nicks, scratches, and abrasions consistent with age, including: pit under nose above lips, small shallow chips to back of proper left upper arm and proper left side of lower back, and small abrasion on forehead. Areas of surface tint on proper right upper leg and proper right foot. Extremely fine aged terracotta patina with layered encrustation from burial. Some flaking of encrustation.
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The oldest known city in Sub-Saharan Africa, Djenné-Jenno was the center of an empire that flourished between the 11th and the 17th centuries in the Inland Niger Delta region of present-day Mali.  The city gives its name to the "Djenné" style of terracotta figures which were excavated in that region.  These mysteriously powerful sculptures are evidence of a highly sophisticated artistic culture and often show the human body in contorted positions or with grotesque disfigurations.  The present sculpture is pierced, presumably to hang as a pendant, and is comparable to others collected in the region showing contorted or deformed bodies. Van Dyke (2008: 64) notes that physical afflictions are sometimes associated with occult power in the ancient oral traditions of the region, and that "similar ideas might be at work in the sculptural corpus."

Although little is known about the original cultural context of Djenné art, themes relating to maternity, birth, disease, death and grief frequently appear in these sculptures.  The iconography of the present figure is remarkable in that it employs a number of these themes in one image, combining different phases of human life.  The figure is in a fetal pose, but with the head of an adult; the posture is contorted as if by some affliction, and the face conveys an expression of loss and grief.

Although similar examples of Djenné figural pendants survive, the present example stands as the finest known.  For a figure in a similar contorted fetal pose, see De Grunne (1998: 84, fig. 5).