AFRICAN TRIBAL 19TH CENT DOGON EQUESTRIAN HORSE RIDER MALI EX DILL COLLECTION

Description

A Fine Dogon Equestrian Figure - Mali
ca 19th-Early 20th Century
Bronze
Height: 10.7cm (4.25in) excluding base
PROVENANCE:
Norman Dill Collection,
Charlottesville, VA
Property from a Private St. Louis, MO Estate
*Documentation on file and can accompany the artwork for historical conservation purposes
Description: Cast figure of slender form, the horse with elongated arched neck, pendant tail and downcast snout, supporting a stylized rider holding a spear and plaited reins; dark brown patina.
Provenance:
The subject figure displays classic Dogon metallurgy and previously of the Norman Dill Collection,
Charlottesville, VA
. Mr. Dill was a known appraiser and retired Charlottesville auctioneer who co-owned the Harlowe-Powell Auction Gallery. Curatorial Remarks: Great condition for being of considerable age. Surface wear and patina commensurate with age
.
Early history is informed by oral traditions, which claim that the Dogon originated from the west bank of the Niger River (10th to 13th centuries). They emigrated west to northern Burkina Faso, where local histories describe them as kibsi. Around 1490, they fled a region now known as the northern Mossi kingdom of Yatenga when it was invaded by Mossi calvary. They ended up in the Bandiagara cliffs region, safe from the approaching horsemen. Carbon-14 dating techniques used on excavated remains found in the cliffs suggest that there were inhabitants in the region before the arrival in the Dogon, dating back to the 10th century. Those Dogon who did not flee were incorporated into Mossi society and were known as the nyonyose, or descendants of the first inhabitants (Roy, 2009). A European visitor to Dogon country early in the 20th century wrote of the "astonishing perfection" of the ornaments created by local blacksmiths through the lost-wax process. While copper-alloy ornaments have been created in the Dogon area for almost a millennium, exact dating of these miniatures remains largely speculative, established on the basis of stylistic analysis. Interestingly, there is no evidence of copper mining in the region. The metal may have been obtained through trans-Saharan trade networks that brought copper from Spain, North Africa, and the Sahara to commercial centers of the Sahel and Sudan. In the harsh landscape of the Bandiagara cliffs the horse was an exotic creature only rarely available to wealthy merchants and chiefs. The horse occupies a privileged place in Dogon myth, as the first animal to leave the heavenly ark from which the earth was populated and organized. Dogon figures depicting horses and equestrian figures reflect the prestige and power that has been associated with the horse since it was introduced to West Africa more than a thousand years ago (Douglas, 1981).
Cf.
Equestrian Statue
(Inventory No. AM-60-12), Dogon, Copper alloy, Mali, Western Sudan (West Africa), Africa Museum, Berg en Dal, Netherlands for a comparable example.
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