Statue - Djenné - Mali (No reserve price)

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

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 Djenné civilization is regarded as one of the precursors of the Dogon culture in Mali.

Capital of the Djenné Cercle, the town 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 hub of trans-Saharan gold trade.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the city also played a crucial role in the spread of Islam. It is distinguished by its remarkable use of earth as a building material, especially in its architecture. Djenné is particularly famous for its Great Mosque, its civil buildings, its monumental houses with intricately crafted façades, 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 indeed constitute an essential natural phenomenon for both the Djenné region and the entire inner Niger Delta.