Standing male figure · Mali, Dogon · ID: 3033305
sold
EUR 3,800
Provenance
John J. Klejman, New York, USANelson Aldrich Rockefeller, New York, USA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv.no 56.379)
Sotheby’s New York, 14 November 1980, lot 98
Harald & Ursula Suhr, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada / Germany
Size
H: 40 cm
H: 15.7 inch
Description
light brown wood, encrustations with sacrificial matters, of schematized form, simplified facial features with beard and full lips, collection number “56.379” in red paint (on figur and base), dam., cracks, missing parts, traces of abrasion;
many different substances are used for sacrifice: the blood of chickens, sheep and goats slaughtered for this purpose, millet porridge, flour made from the fruits and seeds of the baobab tree etc. These sacrificial materials are looked upon as vehicles for “nyama”, the vital force that determines a person’s mental and physical well-being.
Comparing literature
Roy, Christopher D., Die Dogon von Mali und Ober-Volta, München 1983, p. 38 f., ill. 12