Equestrian Figure

In the 15th century, Dogon people fleeing hostilities in their homeland—caused by slave raiders’ incursions and the expansion of Islam—migrated to the rocky Bandiagara Escarpment in present-day Mali, where they encountered the Tellem people. While the Dogon eventually expelled the Tellem from the region, the two peoples appear to have influenced each other’s sculptural styles. This horse-and-rider features the pared-down style and encrusted surface associated with sculptures made by the Tellem.