Federal Republic of Nigeria
Seated Female Figure
On view
Wood
Dimensions26 × 6 × 6 in. (66 × 15.2 × 15.2 cm)
Museum purchase with funds from the Collection Endowment, 2021.7
Carved from a single piece of wood, sculptures such as this one highlight the import role of females in the Yoruba culture to create and care for new life. This sculpture features a mother figure, one child on her lap breastfeeding and the other two draped on her back. Sculptures such as this one would have been made to honor the two-year process in which a mother breastfeeds and carries her children on her back. In Yoruba art, the connection between mother and children is often emphasized and accentuated.
The figures face features scarification marks, an important indication of ethnic and social lineage in the culture. The mother figures hair is in an elaborate style, accentuating her head. The Yoruba believe that the human head is the most vital part of a person, as it holds the seat of wisdom and reason.
