{
"data": {
"id": 152343,
"accession_number": "1985.199",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Male Figure, possibly 1300s\u20131600s. Africa, West Africa, Mali, probably Djenn\u00e9-Djenno, Inland Niger Delta culture-style maker. Terracotta; overall: 19.7 cm (7 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1985.199",
"current_location": "108A African",
"title": "Male Figure",
"creation_date": "possibly 1300s\u20131600s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1300,
"creation_date_latest": 1600,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Africa, West Africa, Mali, probably Djenn\u00e9-Djenno, Inland Niger Delta culture-style maker"
],
"technique": "Terracotta",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 19.7 cm (7 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.197
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA 1986: \"Year in Review 1985,\" Bulletin 73 (February 1986), no. 170, p. 69, repr. p.64.",
"opening_date": "1986-02-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Michael Oliver, Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?\u20131985",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1985\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "While we don\u2019t know who made this work, it can be hypothesized that it was a woman; today, as in much of Africa, potters in Mali are female.",
"description": "Figures like this would have been used in rituals by the ancestors of the present-day inhabitants of the Inland Niger Delta. Representing the gods and kings or queens associated with the region\u2019s former residents, the figures received prayers and offerings in exchange for their support. The seated position of this male has been interpreted as a harmful pose intended to bring death to an individual.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60750202"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1985.199-male-figure"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Henry John Drewal. 1989. African Art : A Brief Guide to the Collection : The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Museum, fig. 1.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. CMA Handbook, 199b, p. 32.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Turner, Evan H. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1985.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (February 1986): 26\u201371.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 64; Mentioned: p. 69, no. 170",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159930"
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. 1, p. 32 - 33",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.199",
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"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 152343,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1985-12-18T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1300,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "possibly 1300s\u20131600s",
"collapse_artists": false,
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"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Seated Male Figure"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:01:28.962000"
}
}