Punu Finial in the Form of a Maternity Figure

She kneels with her chin raised. The small figure at her knees waits.

This finial in the form of a maternity figure is Punu, from Gabon, Central Africa, early 20th century, in carved wood and pigment. Maternity images recur across central African art, where they speak to fertility and the continuing of a family line, and Punu carvers often used white pigment, a color linked with the spirit world. A kneeling woman with a large rounded coiffure rests on a circular platform. A small, dark figure sits at the edge in front of her. Pale pigment covers her body, and the wood beneath shows through in patches. Twelve and a half inches high.

Family portraits seldom get the proportions this honest.