Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Seated Hermaphrodite Figure
Not on view
In Dogon society, sculptures that were used to petition higher powers for sustenance and new life have historically been the creations of professional blacksmiths. Each village typically has several families that specialize in smithing. Mystical powers allow them to deploy earth, air, and fire to make the iron tools upon which agriculture, and thus society at large, depend. The voluminous corpus of sculptural works they produce in cast metal and carved wood, while richly diverse, often emphasizes a graphic, angular definition of the human figure.
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