Water Jar
CultureBambara peoples
Date20th century
MediumLow-fired clay
DimensionsOverall: 22 3/4 × 17 inches (57.79 × 43.18 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the George H. and Elizabeth O. Davis Fund
Object number96-36/1
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionLarge ceramic jar; the upper section is decorated with three stylized lizards in relief against a background of geometric engraved lines. The lower two thirds of the jar is decorated with a dimpled surface.Gallery LabelThe Bamana believe that raw clay possesses extraordinary, potentially harmful amounts of nyama, the vital, spiritual energy animating all things. The best clay comes from the bush, a powerful, dangerous, wilderness realm. Bamana pots must be made by a special lineage of women (numumusow) who possess the spiritual knowledge to work with clay and fire's transformative forces. Here, three lizards-creatures of water and land-span the water jar's upper and lower divisions, which also symbolize two cosmological realms.
With Ali Sillah, Guinea, by August 1990;
Purchased from Ali Sillah by Douglas Dawson, Chicago, IL, stock no. 1502, August 1990-August 1996 [1];
Purchased from Dawson by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1996.
NOTES:
[1] According to Douglas Dawson, in email correspondence with MacKenzie Mallon, Specialist, Provenance, July 17, 2022, NAMA curatorial files, Ali Sillah was a trader from Guinea.
Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Summer 1997): 3, (repro.).
Catherine Futter et al., Ceramics: Highlights of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2016), 51, (repro.).
Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information,
is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete.
Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a
particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum.
If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image,
please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.
