A Dogon Maternity Figure, Mali

of miniature scale and a typical hairstyle, holding an infant in front of her; fine varied brown patina.

Michael Oliver, New York
Acquired from the above, 1980s                                                            

Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections, 1989, p. 61, fig. 23

Stylistically, this maternity figure presents characteristics of both the Tintam style (shape of legs and breasts, facial features, especially nose and eyes) and Nduleri style (the fin-like extensions of the coiffure left and right of the forehead). Regarding the iconography, Hélène Leloup (1994: text to pl. 106) suggests, in reference to a related figure from the de Menil Collection, that the kneeling position of the mother holding an infant in front of her should be understood as a gesture of respect in which the child is offered to a superior authority. This refers "either to the family altar to demonstrate the mother's fertility or to the chief of the ginna during the naming ceremony for the future chief of the lineage."