Djenné-Jeno : 1.000 Ans De Sculpture En Terre Cuite Au Mali

First appearing around 700 A.D., the so-called Djenné statuary flourished until 1750. The work of various groups inhabiting the inland Niger Delta of present-day Mali around the ancient urban center of Djenné-jeno, these terracotta sculptures, more than 250 of which are published for the first time in this book, express a remarkable variety of physical conditions and human emotions, making them the most extensive collection of sacred gestures of any civilization in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1984 and 1985, several investigations in Mali led to fascinating discoveries about the function of this elegant and refined ancient terracotta statuary and its religious and cultural significance.

Djenné-jeno analyzes this important corpus of terracotta sculptures, representative of one of the Mande arts of West Africa and largely unpublished, and reveals potential connections between regions of West Africa whose artistic styles were previously thought to have evolved independently.

Enhanced by hundreds of color illustrations, this book makes an essential contribution to the study of an art form that was virtually unknown a few decades ago.