Kneeling figure with "pustules", ca.11th century ·  Mali, Inland Niger Delta, Djenne · ID: 3051843

Description

light beige terracotta, red colour residue, rest.

Very expressive figure with interesting proportions. A strongly elongated body rests on voluminous knees and is crowned by a relatively tiny head. For a stylistically comparable figure, see AHDRC 0085721.

This terracotta sculpture comes from a site called Jenne-Jeno, the oldest known city in sub-Saharan Africa. Jenne-Jeno flourished in the ninth century A.D., but declined and was abandoned by 1400. Items of cast brass and forged iron, clay vessels, and figures like this one survive. They testify to what scholars contend was a richly varied and highly sophisticated urban society.

A few controlled archaeological digs provide only the vaguest outlines of the original significance of the art of this time and region. Sometimes the bodies of the recovered terracotta figures are covered with pustules that seem to represent a terrible disease.

The object Kneeling figure with “pustules”, ca.11th century with the object ID 3051843 was last part of the auction Auction 104 at April 12, 2025 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 269 achieved a sales price of EUR 3,500.

You can find more Figures and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on African art.

Expertise

Thermoluminescence Report, P. H. Laycock, Brussels, 4 September 1991

Comparing literature

de Grunne, Bernard, Djenne-Jeno, Brussels 2014, ill. 154