Staff with mother and child

Late 19th–early 20th century

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 344

The emergence of a powerful, centralized Zulu state in the early 19th century, as well as the bravery demonstrated by its warriors in the 1879 Anglo–Zulu War, generated global interest in and demand for Zulu cultural artifacts. While Zulu patrons favored geometric and abstract designs, Europeans gravitated to figural works. To capture this new market, Tsonga sculptors adapted their tradition of freestanding figure carving to walking staff finials featuring Zulu subjects. In the example here, that crowning element takes the form of a regal female figure wearing the conical hairstyle of a married Zulu woman, an infant nestling against her back. It is one of at least a dozen finely carved staffs that have been attributed to an itinerant Tsonga carver active across the urban centers of colonial Natal. Although baboon depictions are one of his most distinctive subjects, he also likely produced mother-and-child finials as well as single male and female ones. Those elegantly attenuated figures were finished with delicately carved, low-relief features. By the end of the nineteenth century, this carver appears to have established a workshop of apprentices, including his own son. Carvers of his generation made works to sell to their local communities while also marketing them as widely as possible. His clientele ranged from powerful chiefs to travelers, colonists, and missionaries.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Title: Staff with mother and child
Artist: Master of the Baboon Finial (late 19th–early 20th century, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa)
Date: Late 19th–early 20th century
Geography: South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal
Culture: Tsonga people
Medium: Wood
Dimensions: H. 40 1/4 in. x W. 1 3/4 in. x D. 2 in.
Classification: Wood-Implements
Credit Line: Gift of Carol B. Kenney, in memory of Jerome P. Kenney, 2025
Object Number: 2025.97.7
Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing

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