Additional Information: Known for their art as well as their remarkable villages along the heights of the Bandiagara escarpment, Dogon art remains today some of the best known and most collected African art. This figure is cast in a bronze or brass in a style that is not often seen in Dogon sculpture in which the figure with his elongated form. The well-modeled face has a prominent beard jutting out from the chin in typical Dogon sculptural style. The figure may represent an ancestor or equally a Nommo, one of the eight Dogon primordial figures created by God. Among the Dogon bronze figures were placed on a family altar or kept in the village priest's shrine where they would have offerings made to infuse them with life force to assist humans on earth and to intercede with the deities. The long tradition of figurative metal casting in the Western Sudan reaching back to the period of the great Empire of Mali as early as the 12th century is evident in this strongly modeled figure. The illustrated example reflects the skills of Dogon metal workers to cast in the lost wax tradition figures.Numerous terracotta, bronze, and brass objects have come to light from the great 'Inland Delta Cultures' of the Niger River and Benue River confluence. This figure could have been used as a shrine piece .  Such castings were made using the lost wax technique, which produces one-of-a-kind pieces. A core of clay is covered with wax, which is then carved into the exact shape which the artist wants the finished piece to have. Additional wax "pipelines" are made for the wax to exit and gases to escape. The wax is then covered with a layer of fine clay, and with succeeding layers, each coarser than the previous one. The mold is then heated, which melts the wax and fires the clay into a solid mold. The empty space is filled by pouring in molten brass. After the piece cools, the clay mold is broken, revealing the metal piece ready for polishing.  

• Materials: Brass /bronze (unknown metal content), stone
• Country of Origin: Mali, Upper Niger Delta
• Dimensions: Height: 5 InchesWidth: 1 InchDepth: 2.5 Inches
• People: Dogon

Materials: Brass /bronze (unknown metal content), stoneAfrica Direct