  
  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&acirc;&#128;&#153;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&acirc;&#128;&#153;s beauty &acirc;&#128;&#148; 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&acirc;&#128;&#153;s stool) that, in Asante culture, ranks higher in importance than the king&acirc;&#128;&#153;s (ohene adwa). This is understandable, considering the queen mother&acirc;&#128;&#153;s sole authority to select a new king. The figure&acirc;&#128;&#153;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
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  Life Dates
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  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 &Atilde;&#151; 5 7/8 &Atilde;&#151; 4 5/16 inches (50 &Atilde;&#151; 15 &Atilde;&#151; 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&acirc;&#128;&#153;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&acirc;&#128;&#148;no longer assigned&acirc;&#128;&#148;that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2017.18
  
  
  Copyright
  Public Domain
  
  
  
