An ancient and important maternity in a singular style, illustrating a mother with her three children: one in each arm, clinging to her chest, the third behind her back. The multiplication of the juvenile figures was intended to reinforce the figure's power of fecundity, and the reptilian representations covering the body increase the work's symbolic force. See Chefs d'oeuvre inédits de l'Afrique noire, 1987, no. 91, for a very similar maternity today in the collections of the Yale University Art Gallery (inv. no. 2006.51.116). Djenné civilization, Mali Date: 1050 - 1450 A.D. (Archéolabs BA-04-37-04-01) Fine red ochre terracotta, old and slight dark marks of concretions, slight chips and visible old missing parts. H. Height : 31 cm Provenance : - Pierre Dartevelle, Brussels - Marc Blanpain Collection, Brussels Publications and Exhibitions : - Grunne (de), Dreams of beauty. African Sculptures from the Blanpain Collection, 2005, no. 13, 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° 17 - Cole, Maternity. Mothers and children in the arts of Africa, 2017, p. 77, n° 61