Terracotta Seated Male Figure from Mali in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

Title: Seated Male Figure

Date: 12th–14th century

Geography: Mali, Ségou Region

Culture: Middle Niger civilization

Medium: Terracotta

Dimensions: (Approximately) H. 17 11/16 × W. 15 × D. 11 in. (45 × 38.1 × 27.9 cm)

Classification: Ceramics-Sculpture

Credit Line: Collection of Daniel and Marian Malcolm

Middle Niger artists added and inscribed details on their fluidly modeled bodily forms. The formal unity of these solitary, introspective seated male figures suggests the output of a workshop. Each has the same stylized arrangement of limbs, stone-bead necklaces, and metal bracelets. The interpretive potential of such ancient creations has been severely compromised by their lack of archaeological provenance. To ignore their existence is, however, to deny one of the most significant moments in Sahelian creative expression.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/736501