Figural fragment ·  Mali, Dogon · ID: 3033321

Description

wood, greyish brown patina, in some areas encrusted with clay, typical helmet-shaped head with elongated arrow-shaped nose and projecting beard, incised scarification marks on the slender trunk, which is flanked by thin arms (the right one missing, the left with breakage at the wrist), cracks, paint rubbed off, traces of old age, on base;
because of it’s large size (when adding the missing legs), the figure belongs to the type of the “dege dal nda”, the so-called “sculptures of the terrace”. They are taken out of storage for the funerals of rich men and dressed and displayed on the rooftop terrace of the deceased. For the rest of the time they were stored in the house of the “hogon”. They were a privilege of rich families. Instead of sacrificial coatings of dried blood and millet porridge, the figures tend to be covered with a thin varnish-like layer said to consist of tree sap, soot and oil.

Comparing literature

Ezra, Kate, Art of the Dogon, New York 1988, p. 52, ill. 14 Laude, Jean, African Art of the Dogon, New York 1973, ill. 52

Exhibition

Bruneaf, Brussels Non European Art Fair XVIII, 4-8 June 2008