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Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child

Master of the Boma-Vonde Region

19th–early 20th century, inventoried 1913

Not on view

This pensive mother is framed at the summit by an mpu cap of leadership and at the base by a rectangular platform; its crown features a star motif and the sides of the thin dais at the base are adorned with a bold, linear zigzag. Her left hand cradles the head of the infant who draws sustenance from her left breast. Its body merges with that of its mother’s lap and is held in place by her right hand. The provenance of this work, collected in the Boma-Vonde region before 1913, has been used to identify the author responsible for it and a series of closely related sculptures that share a distinct artistic vision.

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

Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child, Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, kaolin, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child, Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, kaolin, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child, Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, kaolin, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child, Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, kaolin, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child, Master of the Boma-Vonde Region, Wood, kaolin, Kongo peoples; Yombe group

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.

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: Figure: Seated Female Nursing Child

Artist: Master of the Boma-Vonde Region

Date: 19th–early 20th century, inventoried 1913

Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Boma-Vonde region

Culture: Kongo peoples; Yombe group

Medium: Wood, kaolin

Dimensions: H. 9 3/8 in. (23.7 cm), W. 3 1/4 in. (8.2 cm), D. 4 in. (10.1 cm)

Classification: Wood-Sculpture

Credit Line: MIBACT–Polo Museale del Lazio, Museo Preistorico Etnografico Luigi Pigorini, Rome

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.