According to Bernard de Grunne, this superb ancient maternity statue illustrates the richest isolated theme in Djenné art. Symbols of fertility, these statues were used in divinatory rituals to help women become pregnant. While this statue displays all the classic characteristics of Djenné art and its characteristic attributes, it stands out from the corpus for the tenderness of its iconography: the child, whose head rests between the mother's breasts, delicately embraces his mother. Djenné civilization, Mali Dated: 1170 - 1330 A.D. (ASA TL701091) Smooth terracotta, old firing cracks visible, very fine orange-ochre slip. H. 31 cm Provenance : - Kabiné Djanné, Abidjan, before 1968 - Pierre Dartevelle, Brussels - Marc Blanpain Collection, Brussels Publications and Exhibitions : - Grunne (de), Dreams of beauty. African Sculptures from the Blanpain Collection, 2005, no. 12, Luxembourg, Banque Générale du Luxembourg, October 25 - December 2, 2005 - Grunne (de), Djenné-Jeno. 1000 ans de sculpture en terre cuite au Mali / Djenné-Jeno. 1000 years of terracotta statuary in Mali, 2014, n° 26 - Cole, Maternity. Mothers and children in the arts of Africa, 2017, p. 51, n° 41 - Bassani and Pezzoli, Ex Africa. Storie e identita di un " arte universale ", 2019, p. 203, n° III.18, Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico, March 29 - September 8, 2019