Luba Ceramic Medicine Pot

Hands behind her head, belly forward, at ease in a way few pots manage.

This medicine pot is Luba, from Lumbasi Village in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, late 19th century, in terra cotta. Among the Luba and their neighbors, figurative vessels are understood to have held medicines and been kept by specialists. A woman's head and shoulders crown a great egg-shaped body. Both arms lift to loop behind the head, scarification marks the face, and a short spout opens on the chest between the breasts. The surface is warm and mottled. Thirty-two inches high.

She has the air of someone who knows the remedy.