Terracotta Urn From West Africa, Paris Exposition In 2010

Cultic terracotta urn from West Africa (offerings were slipped by the opening at its top)
BURA, lower Niger River, Niger Valley and Burkina Fasso

Circa XIVe - XVe s? (the fairly broad period of these pieces covers from IIIrd cty AD to XVIIIth century).The "Bura culture" was first discovered in 1975 northwest of Niamey, capital of Niger State, and neighboring Burkina Faso.

The typical terracotta finds, stylistically unequivocal, have been dated to the third century AD.
Unearthed from 1983 during excavations conducted by the Institute of Research in Human Sciences (I.R.S.H.) of Niger, the so-called Bura objects consist of large jars and funerary urns, tubular or ovoid, surmounted by heads, characters or even terracotta riders.

This piece was presented on "The Face in all its states" or "The Face in front" exhibitionfrom October 18 to November 9, 2010 at the Réferctoire des Cordeliers in Paris and proposed by the parisian University Paris-Descartes, a hundred pieces from the five continents (classical art and primitive arts – richness of colors, diversity of materials, originality of forms – from Africa, the West, the East, America, the Oceanic world)to illustrate the complex relationship that man has with his face", and "to testify that the face is, since always, the primary mark of Human singularity, at the heart of his essential and main concerns."(please check last photo)

From Yvan BROAHRD personal collection, an Ethno-art historian and curator, specialist in the Middle Age and Renaissance, and passionate about African art. He is the author of some forty books and catalogues of art or ethnology, and more particularly of the book When Art meet Science (2007), a transversal thema of his research and collections. He has also been in charge of Art and Science since 2009 to the President of Paris-Descartes University.

Public exhibition "The face in all its states", Réfectoire des Cordeliers, Paris-Descartes University, 15 rue de l'École de médecine, Paris 75006, 18 October 18th – 2010 November 9th
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnxNv0k4Khg
(Le visage en face - YouTube)

Sizes; 25cm diametere and 30cm high
Condition:terracotta at very low temperature and quality, often leading to conservation problems. Here, 2 light lifts and discrete fels have been restored or better consolidated on the back and upper parts (please check photos)