The Collection
The American Wing Ancient Near Eastern Art Arms and Armor The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing Asian Art The Cloisters The Costume Institute Drawings and Prints Egyptian Art European Paintings European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Greek and Roman Art Islamic Art Robert Lehman Collection The Libraries Medieval Art Musical Instruments Photographs Antonio Ratti Textile Center Modern and Contemporary Art

Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.

Staff Finial: Female Figure with Child

19th–early 20th century

Not on view

This woman’s upper half features schematically rendered breasts directly below her neck. A child-like secondary figure extends from her right side, its head aligned with her shoulder and impossibly turned to face us. The female protagonist grasps a strap in her left hand that extends diagonally across her body from the left shoulder to support the infant’s buttocks.

Staff Finial: Female Figure with Child, Ivory, metal, Kongo peoples — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Staff Finial: Female Figure with Child, Ivory, metal, Kongo peoples

Staff Finial: Female Figure with Child, Ivory, metal, Kongo peoples

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.

Title: Staff Finial: Female Figure with Child

Date: 19th–early 20th century

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

Culture: Kongo peoples

Medium: Ivory, metal

Dimensions: H. 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm), W. 2 in. (5.1 cm), D. 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm)

Classification: Bone/Ivory-Sculpture

Credit Line: Collection of Robert and Nancy Nooter, Washington, D.C.

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.