Male Figure (possibly 1300s–1600s): Art, History and Details

Male Figure (possibly 1300s–1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Figures like this would have been used in rituals by the ancestors of the present-day inhabitants of the Inland Niger Delta. Representing the gods and kings or queens associated with the region’s former residents, the figures received prayers and offerings in exchange for their support. The seated position of this male has been interpreted as a harmful pose intended to bring death to an individual.

Object facts

• Title: Male Figure
• Date: possibly 1300s–1600s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Mali, probably Djenné-Djenno, Inland Niger Delta culture-style maker
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 19.7 cm (7 3/4 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1985.199

A detail from the museum

While we don’t know who made this work, it can be hypothesized that it was a woman; today, as in much of Africa, potters in Mali are female.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Henry John Drewal. 1989. African Art : A Brief Guide to the Collection : The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Museum, fig. 1.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. CMA Handbook, 199b, p. 32.
• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1985.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (February 1986): 26–71.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.