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Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child

Kongo peoples, Yombe group

19th–early 20th century

Not on view

In Kongo society the most important measure of wealth was the number of one’s dependents, including wives, children, clients, and slaves. The high value placed on human capital was epitomized in a Kongo sovereign’s patronage of regalia that emphasizes his spiritually sanctioned command of subordinates. Mother and child figures served as a metaphor for a leader’s relationship to his constituents and the potential for their expansion.

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood (Saccoglottis gabonensis Baill.), glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood (Saccoglottis gabonensis Baill.), glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood (Saccoglottis gabonensis Baill.), glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood (Saccoglottis gabonensis Baill.), glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood (Saccoglottis gabonensis Baill.), glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood (Saccoglottis gabonensis Baill.), glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

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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: Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child

Date: 19th–early 20th century

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

Culture: Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Medium: Wood (Saccoglottis gabonensis Baill.), glass, metal tacks

Dimensions: H. 48 7/8 in. (124.2 cm), W. 2 1/2 in. (6.5 cm)

Classification: Wood-Sculpture

Credit Line: Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium

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.