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Source Description
Wearing an elaborate lobed headdress and a beaded waistbelt, and having filed teeth and red-powdered skin, this maternity figure seems to have once carried an ax and a cup, wooden imitations of the two most important chiefly attributes. Perhaps together with a male counterpart, it was secretly kept inside the ritual house, serving as a guardian of the chief’s treasure. Its style places it in the westernmost corner of Pendeland, between the Lutshima and Kwilu rivers.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
112818
label
Mother-and-Child Figure
core
obj
dtoType
sculpture
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
112818
contentType
sculpture
title
Mother-and-Child Figure
description
Wearing an elaborate lobed headdress and a beaded waistbelt, and having filed teeth and red-powdered skin, this maternity figure seems to have once carried an ax and a cup, wooden imitations of the two most important chiefly attributes. Perhaps together with a male counterpart, it was secretly kept inside the ritual house, serving as a guardian of the chief’s treasure. Its style places it in the westernmost corner of Pendeland, between the Lutshima and Kwilu rivers.
date
late 1800s–early 1900s
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q80005243
genreSpecific
Sculpture
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 53.4 x 13.1 x 14.6 cm (21 x 5 3/16 x 5 3/4 in.)
cul
Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pende-style maker
accession
1931.426
Source extras
tec
Wood, glass beads, upholstery studs, natural fiber, and pigment
tombstone
Mother-and-Child Figure, late 1800s–early 1900s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pende-style maker. Wood, glass beads, upholstery studs, natural fiber, and pigment; overall: 53.4 x 13.1 x 14.6 cm (21 x 5 3/16 x 5 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the African Art Sponsors of Karamu House, 1931.426
collection
African Art
didYouKnow
Eastern Pende carvers also once made larger mother-and-child sculptures to adorn the tops of chiefs' ritual houses.
citations
citation
Wixom, William D. "African Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art." African Arts 10, no. 3 (1977): 16-25, 88, pp. 16-24, repr., fig. 10 (center).
citation
"Three Pieces of Negro Sculpture." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>19, no. 3 (March 1932): 38-39.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 38-39
citation
Petridis, Constantine. “Mbala, Tsaam, or Kwilu Pende? A Mother-and-Child Figure from the Kwango-Kwilu Region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” <em>Cleveland Studies in the History of Art</em> 7 (2002): 126–141.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 126-127, fig. 1
citation
Petridis, Constantijn. <em>South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. </em>Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. 37, p. 104 - 105
citation
Cole, Herbert M. <em>Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa</em>. <br> Brussels : Mercatorfonds, 2017
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 150-151, fig. 126
citation
Petridis, Constantine. "A World of Great Art for Everyone." In <em>Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display.</em> Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 111.
creditline
Gift of the African Art Sponsors of Karamu House
updatedAt
2026-05-29 05:56:39.530000
sourceId
112818
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
Wood, glass beads, upholstery studs, natural fiber, and pigment
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
98ac2e9770121318