{
"data": {
"id": 159837,
"accession_number": "1997.149",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Mother and Child Figure, late 1800s\u2013early 1900s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo (most likely), Cabinda, or Republic of the Congo, probably Yombe-style maker. Wood and paint; overall: 64.7 cm (25 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1997.149",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Mother and Child Figure",
"creation_date": "late 1800s\u2013early 1900s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1875,
"creation_date_latest": 1925,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo (most likely), Cabinda, or Republic of the Congo, probably Yombe-style maker"
],
"technique": "Wood and paint",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 64.7 cm (25 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.647,
"height_inch": 25,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 316953,
"title": "Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art",
"description": "Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 1, 2020-March 14, 2021).",
"opening_date": "2020-11-01T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "New York, NY, The African-American Institute: Masterpieces of the People's Republic of the Congo, 1980, catalogue.",
"opening_date": "1980-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "New York, NY, The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Academic Study, The Department of Primitive Art, September 1984-October 1985.",
"opening_date": "1984-09-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art: The Mother and Child in African Sculpture, December 1985-June 1986. catalogue",
"opening_date": "1985-12-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Collection F. Burniaux, Dinant, Belgium",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "before 1930-1980",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Mr. and Mrs. B. A. Kitnick",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "after 1980-?",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Private Collection",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "after 1980-?",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "(Anthony Slater-Ralph, Santa Barbara, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1997",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1997-",
"sortorder": 5
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The sculpture may have been carved in honor of a woman after her death, or after the death of a male chief. Kongo society is matrilineal, so the chief's right to political power is inherited through the female line.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This Mother and Child Figure is attributed to the Yombe peoples, who inhabit a large territory now divided among the nations of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, and Angola. Its origin has been traced to the areas surrounding the village of a master carver in the western Democratic Republic of Congo, where similarly carved objects were collected in the early 20th century. Its naturalism suggests that it could have been the portrait of a real person, and thus an excellent testimonial to the immense talent of the artist who carved it. Once referred to as the \u201cBurniaux maternity figure,\u201d after the Belgian collector F. Burniaux, who owned it from about 1930 to 1980, the sculpture was acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1998.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79980086"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1997.149-mother-and-child-fig"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Duponcheel, Christian. Masterpieces of the People's Republic of the Congo, exh. cat. New York: African American Institute, 1980, p. 21, no. 10, with comments on pages 7 and 50.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Bassani, Ezio. \"Due grandi artisti Yombe: Il 'Maestro della maternit\u00e0 Roselli-Lorenzini' e il 'Maestro della maternit\u00e0 de Briey.' \" Critica d'Arte 56, no. 178 (1981): 66-84, fig.24.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cole, Herbert M. The Mother and Child in African Sculpture, exh. cat. Los Angeles: Museum Associates, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1985 (Ethnic Arts Series 4), cover and cat. 15.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter. African Art in American Collections: Survey 1989. Washington/London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989, no. 932.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Felix, Marc Leo. \"Sundi de l'Ouest.\" In Marc Leo Felix, Charles Meur, and Niangi Batulukisi. Art et Kongos: les peuples kongophones et leur sculpture, 111-18. Brussels: Za\u00efre Basin Art History Research Center, 1995, 115, no.1.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, \"Annual Report 1997.\" listed p. 43, repr. color p. 31.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, Barbara J Bradley, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 2001. Knockouts : A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 72, p. 69, repr. color; listed p. 118.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cMajor African Sculpture, Recent Mark Tansey Painting, and Other Works of Art Enter CMA Collection,\u201d September 16, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr4152"
},
{
"citation": "Young-Sanchez, Margaret, \"African Maternity\", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 38 no. 02, February",
"page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p.8-9",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM1998-02/page/n7"
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. 41, p. 112 - 113",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cole, Herbert M. Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa.
Brussels : Mercatorfonds, 2017",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 242; reproduced: p. 244, fig. 216",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 31, fig. 20; p. 61, pl. 7; mentioned: p. 22, 32.",
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1090438741"
},
{
"citation": "Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 31, fig. 20; p. 61, pl. 7; mentioned: p. 22, 32.",
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1090438741"
}
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"athena_id": 159837,
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"alternate_titles": [
"Mother and Child"
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:17:34.304000"
}
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