Standing Woman with Mortar

A charming wood sculpture of a young woman pounding food (most likely millet) in a mortar. She is naked, wears her hair with braids falling at each side of her face and has a necklace. The surface is dry, stained dark brown from repeated applications of offerings, probably millet beer.
Height: 29 inches (73.7 cm.)

DG029

Helene Leloup illustrates a similar example in “Dogon Statuary”, ref 113, attributed to N’duleri, Bandiagara Plateau, 16th-17th century, height 100.5 cm., in a private collection. She writes: “Representations of women pounding are rather rare…..it would seem that this statue represents a young woman whose upright breasts demonstrate she has not yet given milk.” Another very similar example of this subject, of height 56.6 cm., is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA.