Katsina Standing Figure of a Male, Based

One eyelid droops. After two thousand years, you would allow it.

Terra cotta, Northern Nigeria, West Africa. The record places this standing figure of a male in the Katsina tradition and dates it to the early 1st century, some 2,000 years ago. Terracotta figures of this region are linked by many scholars to the wider Nok sphere, though the details remain open. Here a long domed head sits on a column body. Heavy eyes, a firm mouth and a row of pendant forms at the neck give him weight. Hands rest at the waist. Dark deposits mark the lower body. It stands 30.25 inches high.

He looks tired. He has earned it.