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Ancestral Shrine Figure: Kneeling Female with Vessel and Seated Figure

Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Not on view

This figure and the closely related one adjacent may have been carved by the same workshop. In both, the woman adopts a distinctive stance in which she kneels so that her right knee is folded under her and her left knee is raised. She places her hand in a black vessel to her right, and a miniature male figure is seated on her left foot. He grasps her calf and crosses his arms against his chest as an indication of grief in a mourning context. In Kikongo the term kinzu refers to an earthenware pot or a calabash container. In Kongo myth, the first medicine was brought from heaven by a culture hero who prepared it in an earthenware kinzu.

Ancestral Shrine Figure: Kneeling Female with Vessel and Seated Figure, Wood, glass, black paint, kaolin, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

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Ancestral Shrine Figure: Kneeling Female with Vessel and Seated Figure, Wood, glass, black paint, kaolin, Kongo peoples, Yombe group
Ancestral Shrine Figure: Kneeling Female with Vessel and Seated Figure, Wood, glass, black paint, kaolin, Kongo peoples, Yombe group
Ancestral Shrine Figure: Kneeling Female with Vessel and Seated Figure, Wood, glass, black paint, kaolin, Kongo peoples, Yombe group
Ancestral Shrine Figure: Kneeling Female with Vessel and Seated Figure, Wood, glass, black paint, kaolin, Kongo peoples, Yombe group
Ancestral Shrine Figure: Kneeling Female with Vessel and Seated Figure, Wood, glass, black paint, kaolin, Kongo peoples, Yombe group
Ancestral Shrine Figure: Kneeling Female with Vessel and Seated Figure, Wood, glass, black paint, kaolin, Kongo peoples, Yombe group
Ancestral Shrine Figure: Kneeling Female with Vessel and Seated Figure, Wood, glass, black paint, kaolin, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

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