1974.Sc.1 Standing female figure

This figure depicts a tall, slender female of naturalistic proportions who is adorned with beaded necklaces and scarification. Because she is clothed in an apron rather than nude, and posed standing rather than kneeling, she probably represents an important female ancestor. Positioned with her hand framing her rounded abdomen, the figure personifies fecundity and motherhood.

Carved from durable hardwood and preserved in caves on the Bandiagara Escarpment, this figure has surved through the ages; it is one of the oldest wooden sculptures from sub-Saharan Africa. It originated among either the Djennenke or the Soninke, who fled from their homeland in the inland Delta of Mali to escape Muslim invaders from the north. The lustrous surface of this ancient sculpture is the result of innumerable anointments with oil, which it continues to exude. It may have remained in use until the mid-20th century.

1961: G. de Brabaut, Galerie de Roi, Brussels

n.d.: Emil Storrer, Zurich

By 1966: Schindler Collection, New York [1]

1974: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, The Gustave and Franyo Schindler Collection of African Sculpture, gift of the McDermott Foundation in honor of Eugene McDermott [2]

Notes: The main source for this provenance is an untitled document compiled Spring, 2007, in the Collections Records object file.

[1] Exhibited at Museum of Primitive Art in the exhibition "Masks and Sculptures from the Collection of Gustave and Franyo Schindler," 1966: cat. no. 15.

[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

Apply to objects where number equals 1974.Sc.1