Figure agenouillée avec "verrues", env. 11ème siècle · Mali, Delta intérieur du Niger, Djenné · 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.
L’objet Figure agenouillée avec “verrues”, env. 11ème siècle avec l’ID d’objet 3051843 a fait partie de la dernière vente aux enchères Vente aux enchères 104 dans 12 avril 2025 le Zemanek-Münster Hôtel des ventes. L’objet portant le numéro de lot 269 a atteint un prix de vente de 3 500 €.
Vous trouverez d’autres Figures et autres types d’objets populaires sur nos pages thématiques associées. Notre page sur le thème Art africain pourrait également vous intéresser.
Expertise
Thermoluminescence Report, P. H. Laycock, Brussels, 4 September 1991
Littérature comparée
de Grunne, Bernard, Djenne-Jeno, Brussels 2014, ill. 154