一个陶土雕塑 - Bankoni - Bamana - 马里 (没有保留价)

Terracotta Bankoni pirogue with figural ensemble, region Segou, Mali.

At the centre of the pirogue stands a mounted rider seated on a comparatively small horse. As Jentsch observed for the entire corpus, the rider is significantly larger than the horse, emphasising hierarchy rather than naturalistic proportion. The horse's robust, column-like legs are integrated into the body of the boat, serving both structural and compositional functions. The rider faces the direction of travel and is characterised by an elongated neck encircled by a prominent ring, which Jentsch describes as a neck ornament. The elongated head and highly simplified facial features—with only minimally modelled eyes, nose, and mouth—are likewise consistent with the stylistic conventions identified in the article.

The front and rear views reveal four attendant figures arranged symmetrically at the bow and stern. Kneeling along the gunwales, they are markedly smaller than the rider, reinforcing the hierarchical organisation of the group. Although Jentsch notes that attendants frequently hold short paddles, no such attributes can be identified with certainty on this example, either because of surface erosion or because they were never modelled. Nevertheless, the spatial arrangement corresponds closely to the compositional pattern described in the article.

Seen from the rear, the sculpture also demonstrates how completely the horse, rider, attendants, and boat are integrated into a single sculptural entity. The pirogue is not merely a support for the figures but a shared spatial framework in which all participants are materially connected. For this reason, Jentsch's term "figural ornament" appears problematic. The figures do not decorate the boat; rather, they constitute its primary iconographic programme. Without the horse, rider, and attendants, the vessel would lose its meaning. The sculpture therefore represents a coherent narrative or ritual scene rather than a miniature model of an ordinary canoe.

From the perspective of object biography, the sculpture can be understood as more than an archaeological artefact. Surface wear, losses, and weathering testify to a long history of use and deposition. Combined with Jentsch's observation that many pirogues were already broken before burial, these traces suggest that fragmentation may have formed part of the object's original life history rather than resulting solely from accidental damage. The biography of the sculpture therefore encompasses manufacture, ritual use, possible intentional fragmentation, deposition, excavation, restoration, circulation through the art market, and eventual reinterpretation as a work of African art. Analogies with carved Bamana pirogue sculptures further support an interpretation of the vessel not as a simple scale model but as a symbolic and performative space in which hierarchy, authority, ancestral presence, or ritual transition were materially enacted.

In his article, Thomas Jentsch presents for the first time a corpus of twenty-eight terracotta pirogue models from the Inland Niger Delta of Mali that entered Germany through the art market and are now in the author's private collection. According to a thermoluminescence test, at least one example dates to approximately 490 years ago. Jentsch provides a detailed formal description of the objects, discussing their dimensions, construction, and iconography. Most depict a long, narrow canoe carrying a centrally placed horse with one or two mounted riders, accompanied by kneeling attendants positioned at the bow and stern. Some figures hold paddles, shields, or quivers, while others are distinguished by necklaces, arm rings, amulets, and highly stylised facial features. The article also compares these works with related finds from Fatoma and the Sévaré region, arguing that figural pirogue representations were not confined to the Djenné area. Because neither the archaeological provenance nor the excavation contexts are known, however, the discussion remains largely descriptive and typological, focusing on morphology rather than function or meaning.

Viewed through the lens of object biography, the article invites a broader interpretation than it ultimately pursues. Rather than treating the pirogues simply as archaeological sculptures or miniature boats, they can be understood as objects whose significance changed over time. Their biographies encompass manufacture, ritual or social use, deliberate or accidental fragmentation, deposition, excavation, restoration, circulation through the art market, acquisition by collectors, and eventual publication as works of African art. Particularly significant is Jentsch's observation that the fracture surfaces had already acquired a patina before burial, suggesting that the objects had been broken prior to deposition. While this cannot be taken as proof of ritual fragmentation, it raises the possibility that breaking formed part of the objects' original life history rather than being merely the result of later damage.

The title itself, “Pirogue Models with Figural Ornament,” also deserves reconsideration. The term “ornament” implies decoration, whereas the repeated arrangement of horse, rider, attendants, paddles, and weapons suggests a coherent iconographic programme. Rather than embellishing the boats, these figures may have constituted an integrated ritual ensemble. Analogies with carved Bamana pirogue models indicate that the boats could have functioned as symbolic spaces in which authority, ancestral presence, procession, or ritual transition was enacted. An object-biographical approach therefore shifts attention away from stylistic description towards the changing social and ritual lives of these artefacts, recognising them not only as archaeological finds but also as objects transformed through use, deposition, restoration, collection, and scholarly interpretation.

Thomas Jentsch, “Pirogenmodelle mit Figurenschmuck aus Mali,” Kunst & Kontext, no. 28, June 2026, pp. 17–20.

Some of the information is generated by artificial intelligence and is based on published sources from the fields of ethnography, archaeology, and art history.

Invent. No. MAZ//18/9///39

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