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Power Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child (Nkisi)

Master of the Boma-Vonde Region

19th–early 20th century

Not on view

In this maternity by the Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, the natural interaction between mother and child is reflected in the nuanced gesture of the child reaching for the underside of its mother’s breast. A cavity in the head is filled with medicinally charged matter, and a packet of medicines is affixed to the torso between the breasts—evidence of its consecration by a priest as an nkisi instrument used in his practice.

Power Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child (Nkisi), Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, metal, kaolin, glass, resin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Power Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child (Nkisi), Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, metal, kaolin, glass, resin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Power Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child (Nkisi), Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, metal, kaolin, glass, resin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Power Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child (Nkisi), Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, metal, kaolin, glass, resin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Power Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child (Nkisi), Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, metal, kaolin, glass, resin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Power Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child (Nkisi), Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, metal, kaolin, glass, resin, pigment, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

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KongoPB6: Seated Female Figure wtih Child (phemba). Kongo peoples, Yombe group; Boma-Vonde gregion, D.R.C. Wood, metal, kaolin.

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

KongoPB6: Seated Female Figure wtih Child (phemba). Kongo peoples, Yombe group; Boma-Vonde gregion, D.R.C. Wood, metal, kaolin.

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

Detail 2

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Detail 1

Title: Power Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child (Nkisi)

Artist: Master of the Boma-Vonde Region

Date: 19th–early 20th century

Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo; Republic of the Congo; Cabinda, Angola

Culture: Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Medium: Wood, metal, kaolin, glass, resin, pigment

Dimensions: H. 11 1/8 in. (28.3 cm), W. 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm), D. 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm).

Classification: Wood-Sculpture

Credit Line: Steven Kossak, The Kronos Collections, New York

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.