Maternity - Djenné - Mali (No reserve price)

This intriguing terracotta sculpture was made by the people of Djenné, in Mali. It represents a female figure. The material was worked with great mastery by the artisans of Djenné, whose know-how gave rise to remarkable works in the ceramic arts.

Formerly a prosperous town and an important commercial center in the region, Djenné was located in the inner delta of the Niger River, at the heart of the Mali Empire between the 12th and 16th centuries. The civilization of Djenné is considered one of the precursor cultures of the Dogon of Mali.

Capital of the cercle of the same name, Djenné lies about 130 km southwest of Mopti, the regional capital, and about 570 km northeast of Bamako, the national capital. It is among the oldest towns in sub-Saharan Africa. Inhabited since the 3rd century BCE, Djenné became a major market and an important center of trans-Saharan gold trade.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the city also played an essential role in the diffusion of Islam. It is distinguished by the remarkable use of earth as a building material, notably in its architecture. Djenné is particularly famous for its Great Mosque, its civil edifices, its monumental houses with façades carefully elaborated, and its unique urban fabric.

Traditional dwellings, designed to adapt to seasonal floods, are built on small elevations. The annual floods of the Niger and its tributaries constitute, indeed, an essential natural phenomenon, both for the Djenné region and for the entire inner delta of the Niger.