Terracotta Vessel with a Seated Primate

The Guardian with Open Jaws

It is the mouth you meet first. Thrown wide and ringed with sharp teeth, it is at once a threat and an opening, the very place where the vessel would receive or pour out what it held. The maker has turned the creature’s cry into the purpose of the pot.

Monkeys and baboons appear in the art of many African traditions as figures of intelligence and mischief, at times as go-betweens linking the village and the forest. Here the primate crouches on the swelling body as if guarding it, hands and feet gripping the curve, wrists and ankles hung with heavy rings, ornaments we associate with people. Dressed this way, the animal becomes something more than an animal.

Look closer and the surface tells its own story: notched ribs running down the body like seams, a zigzag line studded with circles winding between them, a skin of small impressions covering every inch. The red still glowing in the ears hints that the piece was once more colourful than it is today.

Whatever its exact use, the work holds two ideas in balance: the calm, generous roundness of a vessel, and the wild energy of the creature that sits upon it.

A globular footed vessel surmounted by a crouching primate. The wide-open mouth, lined with pointed teeth, appears to form the vessel’s opening. The large pierced ears retain traces of red pigment, and the head is crowned with conical spikes.

Rings encircle the wrists and ankles, and the fingers and toes are carefully modelled. The body is decorated with vertical notched ribs and zigzag bands set with concentric circles, over an overall textured surface.