h. 73,8 cm.

A Dogon female figure with child

Usually referred to in western literature as an ancestor or maternity figure, it is more likely to be a representation of the living; it serves as an intermediary with the gods, spirit entities and ancestors for which purpose invocations and offerings are made, as Van Beek (1988: 60) observed in his field studies. In this publication he noticed that the Dogon traditionally perceive the nature of gods and spirit entities as ambiguous and consequently sacrifices are perceived as a means to cope with disasters and misfortune (id.: 58). In order to do so altars were built for communal or individual uses. Van Beek asserts that the Dogon figure ‘(..) is both a person and an altar; in fact it represents someone at the altar (Id.: 58).

A corpus of older statues, of which the female figures are characterised by a hairdress with deep recesses on the forehead, close-set eyes, a specific necklace with flaring pendants, large pendulous breasts, a prominent navel and strong muscular legs below a rather narrow torso, according to Hélène Leloup (1995) can be ascribed to the N’Duléri style in the north-western part of the Bandiagara Plateau. A style allegedly begun in the 17th Century and which continued into the early years of the 20th century. Within this corpus the female figure holding a child – in most examples to her left - is prominent concept. Ezra (1988: 45) caught the morphology convincingly in stating, ‘(…) the artist has transformed a cylindrical block of wood into a series of stacked diagonal forms whose jagged ends create a dynamic, rhythmic composition. These diagonal forms can be seen in the drooping breasts, the full abdomen exaggerated to a point at the navel, the position of the baby cradled in the woman’s arms, and, finally, the supporting slope of the thighs, which extend from the sharply jutting buttocks to the flexed knees. Even the slanted lines of coiffure and the jut of the strong chin reflect this method of reconstructing the human body out of similarly shaped and angled forms, a characteristic of much Dogon art.’ The child is rendered as a diminutive adult and seems to float along the mother’s torso and the confines of her left arm, its lower legs but held by her right hand – a common posture found in the statues carved in this style. There is no immediate attachment between the mother and her child, it is rather perceived as a standard concept to fulfil a special purpose.

In comparison to other figures carved in this style the present item comes very close to the figure in the Dapper collection (inv. nr 0108), bequeathed by Lester Wunderman and in particular the Nelson A. Rockefeller figure now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. nr 1979.206.78). The latter piece of sculpture has a same treatment of body parts and the back is also treated in solid and flattened forms. The figure under discussion here, though, has an expressive face, the product of a proficient hand who was able to transmit a naturalness not easily found in other Dogon sculpture. Eyes, long nose with flaring nostrils and pouting lips within the accentuated jaw and coiffure impart the head on an elongated neck eloquently. By doing so, the artist expressed in an extraordinary way the very essence of this statue.

Bibliography

Beek, Wouter van (1988), ‘Functions of Sculpture in Dogon Religion’, African Arts 21, 58-65

Ezra, Kate (1988), Art of the Dogon. Selections from the Lester Wunderman Collection, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Leloup, Hélène (1995) Dogon Statuary, Strasbourg: Ed. Amez

African Heritage Documentation and Research Centre, Brussels

Expositions: Delft Etnografisch Museum, ‘Van Niger tot Limpopo’, Jan de Hoog, May-September 1960. Page 15, pl.6. Galerie D’Eendt, Amsterdam, ‘Symbool van het moederschap’, 1982.