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Mother and Child Figure

17th–19th century (?)
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 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
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing