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Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child

Kongo peoples, Yombe group

19th–early 20th century

Not on view

Across Kongo principalities and chieftaincies, an essential attribute of political office and the high power vested in it was an elaborate customized staff featuring a carved wood or ivory figurative finial that referenced the owner’s lineage. The regal and nurturing female figures that occupy a position of distinction at the summit of many chiefly staffs embody an ideal of aesthetic beauty and a profound, collectively held desire for social vitality and renewal.

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood, 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, glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood, glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood, glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood, glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood, glass, metal tacks, Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Staff: Finial with Female Figure Nursing Child, Wood, 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.

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, Lukula Territory

Culture: Kongo peoples, Yombe group

Medium: Wood, glass, metal tacks

Dimensions: H. 27 1/2 in. (69.9 cm), W. 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm), D. 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm).

Classification: Wood-Sculpture

Credit Line: Karob Collection, Boston

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.