Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Seated Male Figure
Not on view
In Mande society, clay has historically been a major medium of creative expression identified with female expertise. Women’s mastery of sophisticated techniques of forming and firing clay parallels that of men’s manipulation of iron ore through smithing. Given that these gendered specializations go back as far as anyone can remember, it has been proposed that female authors produced the full array of Middle Niger ritual ceramics, including figurative representations.
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