Bura Figurative Vessel Top, Based

A face that is nearly a leaf. The Bura potter had other ideas about faces.

This vessel top from Niger was made between the 11th and 15th centuries. The Bura made their terra cotta for the dead, setting heads and figures like this one atop vessels in their burial grounds. The head is a broad, flattened oval that fans out over a short cylindrical neck. Rather than a naturalistic face, the surface is organized by incised lines radiating from the crown, with small applied pellets for the eyes and nose.

The orange-pink clay is dry and lightly pitted. A slender rod and square base hold it at seven and three-quarter inches. Anything but ordinary.