Minneapolis Institute of Art

Male figure

Dogon artist

Date

17th–18th century

Medium

Wood

Culture

Dogon

Department

Arts of Global Africa

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This musician has been playing his xylophone for more than 250 years. Among the oldest woodcarvings in these galleries, it was created by the Dogon people from Mali, who have a very old art tradition. Its dry surface and lack of a thick crust of offerings suggest that it was not used as an altarpiece, as many Dogon figures are. Instead, it was probably made as a reference to migrations long ago, when the ancestors of the Dogon left the Mali Empire around the 14th century. Africa

The authoritative record is held by Minneapolis Institute of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.