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Source Description
Beyond its specific depiction of a mother nursing her child, this sculpture symbolizes a larger concept of ancestral motherhood that is central to Senufo society, in which cultural inheritance is matrilineal. The darkened areas of wood come from oils applied to its surface as both libations and surface protectants. In some Senufo beliefs, one of the most important founding ancestors is the Great Mother or Ancient Woman (Katyeleeo or Maleeo). In groups that believe in the Great Mother, she suckles male initiates with the "milk of knowledge." Through this process, youths gain the information they need to become adults (that is, fully human). The simplified appearance of the "child" in this sculpture reflects his unformed, pre-initiated state.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
136656
label
Nursing Woman with Child
core
obj
dtoType
sculpture
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
136656
contentType
sculpture
title
Nursing Woman with Child
description
Beyond its specific depiction of a mother nursing her child, this sculpture symbolizes a larger concept of ancestral motherhood that is central to Senufo society, in which cultural inheritance is matrilineal. The darkened areas of wood come from oils applied to its surface as both libations and surface protectants. In some Senufo beliefs, one of the most important founding ancestors is the Great Mother or Ancient Woman (Katyeleeo or Maleeo). In groups that believe in the Great Mother, she suckles male initiates with the "milk of knowledge." Through this process, youths gain the information they need to become adults (that is, fully human). The simplified appearance of the "child" in this sculpture reflects his unformed, pre-initiated state.
date
1800s-1900s
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60760770
genreSpecific
Sculpture
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 63.6 cm (25 1/16 in.)
cul
Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, reportedly Korhogo area, Senufo-style carver
accession
1961.198
Source extras
tec
Wood and organic material
tombstone
Nursing Woman with Child, 1800s-1900s. Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, reportedly Korhogo area, Senufo-style carver. Wood and organic material; overall: 63.6 cm (25 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund, 1961.198
collection
African Art
didYouKnow
The mother’s face, adorned with incisions and markings, resembles that of women who have reached puberty.
citations
citation
Kjersmeier, Carl, and Françoise Juliette Isabelle Gleizal. 1967. <em>Centres De Style De La Sculpture Nègre Africaine</em>. New York: Hacker Art Books, figs. 38-41.
citation
Lem, F. H. 1948. <em>Sculptures Soudanaises</em>. Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, figs. 40-46.
citation
Muensterberger, Werner. 1955. <em>Sculpture of Primitive Man</em>. New York: H.N. Abrams, fig. 9.
citation
<em>The Sculpture of Africa : 405 Photographs</em>. 1958. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, figs. 96, 103.
citation
Elsy Leuzinger, Africa (New York, 1960), Senufo seated female cf. fig. 26 and standing, pl. 12.
citation
Museum of Primitive Art (New York, N.Y.), and Robert Goldwater. 1964. <em>Senufo Sculpture from West Africa</em>. Greenwich, Conn: Distributed by New York Graphic Society, p. 24.
citation
Lee, Sherman E. "Year in Review 1961." In <em>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 48, no. 9 (November 1961): 248, cat. 24; repr. p. 233.
page_number
p.248, cat. 24; repr. p. 233
citation
The Nelson Gallery of Art. <em>The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-literate People of the World</em>. Kansas City, MO: The Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum, 1962, 22, no. 27.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 22, cat. no. 27
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966, 302.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 302
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969, 302.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 302
citation
Elizabeth Broudy and Elizabeth Youngblood. <em>Icon and Symbol: The Cult of the Ancestor in African Art</em>. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: Cranbrook Academy of Art & Museum, 1975, cat. 9.
page_number
cat. no. 9
citation
Weisberg, Gabriel P.<em> Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975, cat. no. 54.
page_number
cat. no. 54
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978, 410.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 410
citation
Drewal, Henry John. <em>African Art: A Brief Guide to the Collection</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1989, fig. 21.
page_number
fig. 21
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991, 149.
page_number
p.149
citation
Gibbons, Martha B., and Jo Zuppan. <em>Interpretations: Sixty-five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991, 42.
page_number
p. 42
citation
Petridis, Constantine. <em>South of the Sahara: Selected Works of African Art</em>. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003, 47, color plate 8.
page_number
p.47, color plate 8.
citation
Petridis, Constantine. "A New Installation for African Art in Cleveland." In <em>Tribal</em> 3, no. 36 (Autumn/Winter 2004): 68-73.
page_number
p.68-73
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: P. 29
citation
Gagliardi, Susan Elizabeth, and Constantijn Petridis. <em>Senufo Unbound: Dynamics of Art and Identity in West Africa. </em>Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015.
page_number
p. 146, fig. 97
citation
Gagliardi, Susan Elizabeth and Constantine Petridis. "Senufo Unbound: Dynamics of Art and Identity in West Africa." In <em>African Arts</em> 48, no. 1 (Spring 2015): 6-23.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 8, fig. 2.
citation
Cyvoct, Colin. “L'Afrique des Senufo au Musee Fabre.” In <em>L'Œil </em>687 (Janvier 2016): 90.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 90
citation
Geoffroy-Schneiter, Bérénice. “L'Art Senufo au Sommet.” <em>L'Estampille/L'Objet d'Art</em> 520 (Février 2016): 6.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 6.
citation
Cole, Herbert M. <em>Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa</em>. <br> Brussels: Mercatorfonds, 2017.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 145-146
citation
Liebert, Emily, Nadiah Fellah, and William Griswold. <em>Picturing Motherhood Now.</em> Cleveland : Cleveland Museum of Art, 2021
page_number
Mentioned & Reproduced: P. 10-11, fig. 3
citation
Rondeau, James, Constantijn Petridis, Yaëlle Biro, Herbert M. Cole, Kassim Kone, Babatunde Lawal, Wilfried Van Damme, and Susan Mullin Vogel. <em>The language of beauty in African art.</em> 2022.
creditline
James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund
sketchfabId
867a30f081df40d09597b4fb140b4cf3
updatedAt
2026-06-18 21:17:11.832000
sourceId
136656
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
Wood and organic material
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
a775758fec7470a5