Ring Depicting a Rider on Horseback

Arts of Africa

Probably late 19th/early 20th century

Dogon
Mali
Northern Africa and the Sahel

Small cast copper-alloy ornaments are made across West Africa within the arc of the great Niger River. Brass or bronze casting has powerful associations with the supernatural because, like ironworking, it is a highly specialized process that uses fire to transform a raw material into a form that is useful and meaningful to humans. Dogon political and spiritual leaders wear copper-alloy ornaments that express power, such as this remarkably detailed horse and rider.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Dogon
Title: Ring Depicting a Rider on Horseback
Place: Mali (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1875–1925
Medium: Copper alloy
Dimensions: H.: 6 cm (2 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Richard Faletti, the Faletti Family Collection
Reference Number: 2006.116

New York, N.Y., Museum for African Art, Animals in African Art: From the Familiar to the Marvelous, cat. 18; traveled to Omaha, Neb., Joslyn Art Museum, May 18-July 14, 1996, Montgomery, Ala., Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, 1996, n.d., Charlotte, N.C., Mint Museum of Art, Oct. 26, 1996-Jan. 5, 1997, Long Beach, Calif., Long Beach Museum of Art, n.d., Dallas, Tex., Dallas Museum of Art, n.d.

Unnamed owner, Bamako, Mali; sold to Susan and Jerome Vogel, New York, N.Y., by 1991. William Wright, William Wright Gallery, New York, N.Y., by 1991; sold to Richard Faletti (died 2006), Faletti Family Collection, Phoenix, Ariz., 1991; given to the Art Institute, 2006.

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