cma-african-art: Mother-and-Child Figure, late 1800s-early 1900s, Cleveland Museum of Art: African A
cma-african-art: Mother-and-Child Figure, late 1800s-early 1900s, Cleveland Museum of Art: African ArtWearing 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.Size: Overall: 53.4 x 13.1 x 14.6 cm (21 x 5 3/16 x 5 ¾ in.)Medium: wood, metal, beadshttps://clevelandart.org/art/1931.426 -- source link