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Mother and Child Figure

17th–19th century (?)

Not on view

As the focus of prayers and offerings, Dogon sculptures served as altars that heightened the attention of the divine and intensified spiritual engagement. Help with infertility has been among the most common requests for ancestral intervention. Mother-and-child figures served as visual petitions giving lasting voice to a woman’s fleeting words of prayer that she might generate new life. Artistic renderings of this profoundly held desire have imaginatively explored the nature of the parent-child relationship. None of these derives from artistic precedent; rather, each is a highly personalized and original interpretation of the subject.

Mother and Child Figure, Wood, Dogon peoples — Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Mother and Child Figure, Wood, Dogon peoples

Mother and Child Figure, Wood, Dogon peoples

This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Courtesy Menil Collection

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Courtesy Menil Collection

Title: Mother and Child Figure

Date: 17th–19th century (?)

Geography: Mali

Culture: Dogon peoples

Medium: Wood

Dimensions: H. 21 7/8 × W. 5 × D. 6 1/2 in. (55.6 × 12.7 × 16.5 cm)

Classification: Wood-Sculpture

Credit Line: The Menil Collection, Houston

Accession Number: SL.3.2020.11.4

The Met

The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Met

The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.