Bura Figurative Vessel Top, Based

The Bura carver, working in Niger, understood something about subtraction.

This vessel top dates to the 11th to 15th centuries, and like others in the tradition it once sat on a jar in a burial ground. Many Bura pieces favor simplified, elongated forms. Here head and neck flow into a single rounded column with a gently domed top. Faint incised lines cross the brow. A low nose. A small round mouth, set near the middle. The surface is pale peach clay, orange in the hollows, rough and weathered throughout.

Nine inches on its stand. A hush, in terra cotta.