carved chair rung

unrecorded Chokwe artist, artist

carved chair rung, late 1800s–1914

Where object was made: Angola

Material/technique: wood

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 11.5 x 33.5 cm
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 4 1/2 x 13 3/16 in

Credit line: Gift of Claude D. Brown

Accession number: 2007.0893

Not on display

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Label texts

Inventing Childhood

Motherhood constitutes an important and popular subject for artistic expression in many African communities. Women and children are often the subjects of sculptures carved by the Oyo peoples for worship in household shrines. The nursing mother depicted in this example wears her hair in an elaborately styled coiffure and bears evidence of facial scarification on each cheek—details that suggest a personal portrait of a unique individual woman and her child, rather than an idealized symbol. Graphic and personal depictions of motherhood are echoed on the carved chair rung, which depicts a Chokwe woman in the throes of childbirth. The birth scene would have connected the owner of the chair—likely a sacred throne—to notions of fertility and the continuation of the Chokwe peoples.

Exhibition Label:
"Chokwe Art from the Claude D. Brown Collection," Feb-2000
This throne rung shows a woman giving birth. the elaborate scarification on her body identifies her as a woman who has completed various initiations and is a full member of Chokwe society, an image that connects the owner of the throne to ideas of fertility and continuance of the Chokwe peoples and their systems of belief.

Archive label, date unknown:
BIRTH SCENE
This scene depicts a woman giving birth, assisted by two midwives. Birth and fertility are recurrent themes in Chokwe art and religion.