About this artwork
Among the most elaborately adorned Baatombu (singular, Baatonu) vessels are large egg-shaped jars with heavily embellished surfaces that combine delicate incising with bold modeling in low or high relief. Some of these, as well as similarly shaped shea-butter-fueled lamps, are decorated with inventive sculptural forms including animals and fully realized figures.
This jar may have been commissioned as a “butter jar” for a newly married woman. Central to its imagery is a male and female couple—tendered in an elongated style—that stands rooted in the swirling sea of imagery enveloping the pot from top to bottom. The heads of a man, wearing a chief’s hat, and woman, wearing a traditional headwrap, float amid the images of a large chameleon, a crocodile, and hemispherical beads, some linked together, possibly referring to the sexually provocative beads that Baatombu women wear around their waists. [See also 2002.625, 2005.240, and 2005.272].
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Arts of Africa
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Culture
- Bargu
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Title
- Jar (Wékéru)
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Place
- Benin (Object made in:)
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Date
- Made 1900–1975
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Medium
- Terracotta
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Dimensions
- 27.3 × 26.7 cm (10 3/4 × 10 1/2 in.)
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Credit Line
- Gift of Keith Achepohl
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Reference Number
- 2005.271
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
