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Figure: Seated Female with Child

Kongo peoples; Yombe group

19th – early 20th century; inventoried 1916

Not on view

There is an intensely vivid quality to this figure, with its dramatically contrasting and densely applied white and red pigments. This dynamism is complemented by the zigzag pattern inscribed around her mpu cap. In view of the exquisite carved details of Kongo “mother and child” figures, European collectors often removed their original ritual surfaces. The layers of mpemba and tukula retained here are composed of white clay and redwood powder and metaphorically associated with the bones and blood of the ancestors. Suspended around the woman’s neck from a finely knotted cord is a pendant composed of two leopard claws joined in a crescent. This form, which evokes the handheld slit drums conceived as vessels for spiritual communication, was an insignia of acolytes of the Lemba society. The secondary figure is unusual for the gesture of holding a hand to its mouth.

Figure: Seated Female with Child, Wood (Canarium schweinfurthii Engl.), plant fiber, glass, leopard claw, kaolin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Figure: Seated Female with Child, Wood (Canarium schweinfurthii Engl.), plant fiber, glass, leopard claw, kaolin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Figure: Seated Female with Child, Wood (Canarium schweinfurthii Engl.), plant fiber, glass, leopard claw, kaolin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Figure: Seated Female with Child, Wood (Canarium schweinfurthii Engl.), plant fiber, glass, leopard claw, kaolin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Figure: Seated Female with Child, Wood (Canarium schweinfurthii Engl.), plant fiber, glass, leopard claw, kaolin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Figure: Seated Female with Child, Wood (Canarium schweinfurthii Engl.), plant fiber, glass, leopard claw, kaolin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Title: Figure: Seated Female with Child

Date: 19th – early 20th century; inventoried 1916

Geography: Angola, Cabinda

Culture: Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Medium: Wood (Canarium schweinfurthii Engl.), plant fiber, glass, leopard claw, kaolin, pigment

Dimensions: H. 9 1/2 in. (24 cm), W. 4 in. (10 cm), D. 3 1/8 in. (8 cm)

Classification: Wood-Sculpture

Credit Line: Museu da Ciência da Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal

The Met

The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Met

The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.