Maternity Figure (Obaa Hemaa)

19th century

Asante, African

On View

African, Level 1, North Wing

Maternity Figure (Obaa Hemaa): 1 of Collection Gallery

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About the Artwork

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Provenance

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

This sculpture underscores women's prestige and influence in the Akan culture of West Africa. For the matrilineal Akan people, motherhood is a badge of honor with profound symbolic implications for fertility and society’s continuity. Consequently, maternity figures appear frequently in religious shrines and altars. However, this is no ordinary mother. A queen mother figure, called obaa hemaa, is a rare variety of an idealized portrait of a historical personage.
The artist employed appropriate visual codes to convey the subject’s beauty — glossy black skin tone, arched eyebrows, thin nose, and pursed lips. Her oversized head, narrow cylindrical torso, and facial features accentuate her regal pose and commanding gaze. The figure wears sandals that identify her as a queen and sits on a specific stool type called ohemaa adwa (or queen’s stool) that, in Asante culture, ranks higher in importance than the king’s (ohene adwa). This is understandable, considering the queen mother’s sole authority to select a new king. The figure’s hairstyle and raised facial and neck scars suggest a date before 1900. The author, an unknown sculptor with an identifiable style, carved distinctive queen mother figures with hallmark two-toned pigmentation.

Title Maternity Figure (Obaa Hemaa)

Artwork Date 19th century

Artist ----------

Life Dates ----------

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. African

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Asante

Medium Wood with pigment

Dimensions Overall: 19 11/16 × 5 7/8 × 4 5/16 inches (50 × 15 × 11 cm)

Classification Sculpture

Department African Art

Credit Museum Purchase, Robert H.Tannahill Foundation Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 2017.18

Markings

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Provenance

(Bernard de Grunne, Brussels, Belgium);
2017-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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Published References

Quarcoopome, Nii. “Akan Wood Sculpture.” Bulletin of the DIA 91, no. 1/4 (2017): p. 107 (fig. 5.31a-b).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Asante, African, Maternity Figure (Obaa Hemaa), 19th century, wood with pigment. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Robert H.Tannahill Foundation Fund, 2017.18.