Double Altar Vessel

Arts of Africa

Early/mid–20th century

Gur-speaking peoples, possibly Lobi
Burkina Faso
Northern Africa and the Sahel

The Lobi make double pots to aid in the treatment of ailing twins. The birth of twins is considered a blessing, and when they become ill it is diagnosed as a supernatural concern that must be addressed to the protective spirit of the father’s family. The relatives commission a double pot, which is placed on the father’s alar and contains a specially brewed medicine that is used to bathe the twins. According to Klaus Schneider, who has conducted an extensive study of Lobi pottery, double pots are always made with rounded bottoms and without figural embellishment. This double vessel has a flat bottom and flat lids, and is embellished with a male figure on one pot and a female figure on the other, suggesting that it may come from a closely related, but stylistically independent, tradition.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Gur
Title: Double Altar Vessel
Place: Burkina Faso (Object made for:)
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.: 1900–1975
Medium: Terracotta
Dimensions: 25.4 × 40.6 cm (10 × 16 in.); 25 × 39 × 15 cm (9 7/8 × 15 3/8 × 5 15/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Keith Achepohl
Reference Number: 2006.744

Kathleen Bickford Berzock, For Hearth and Altar: African Ceramics from the Keith Achepohl Collection (The Art Institute and Yale University Press, 2005), cat. 32.

Art Institute of Chicago, Women’s Work: African Terracotta Vessels, July 26–Sept. 14, 1997, no. cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, For Hearth and Altar: African Ceramics from the Keith Achepohl Collection, Dec. 3, 2005–Feb. 20, 2006, cat. 32.

Unknown owner, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, by 1995; sold to Galerie Keith Barton, Ranchos De Taos, N.Mex., by 1995; sold to Keith Achepohl, Iowa City, Iowa, 1995; given to the Art Institute, 2006.

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.

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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.

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