Object Name: Kneeling female figure

Culture: Yombe peoples

Place of Origin: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Date/Era: 18th-19th century

Medium/Materials: Carved wood, traces of blood, traces of kaolin

Dimensions: H: 114.3 cm

Credit Line: Fowler Museum at UCLA; Gift of Barbara and Joseph Goldenberg.

Accession Number: X2010.16.110

This work was used to reverse infertility in women and was one of the objects belonging to a women’s group dedicated to female health and well-being. Figures of this type depicted young mothers endowed with all the marks of Yombe beauty: elegant and prolific scarification patterns on the chest and the back, a tall conical prestige headdress, elegantly filed teeth, and a serene composure befitting the proud mother of an infant child.

Source: Gallery text, Fowler in Focus: Radiance and Resilience: Arts of Africa and the Americas from the Goldenberg Collection, 2011.

See also: Marla C. Berns, World Arts, Local Lives: The Collections of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, 2014.