Female Figure

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Origin Atauro Island

Title Female Figure

Date Ca. 1900

Medium Wood

Dimensions Object: 26 5/8 × 3 5/8 × 4 1/4 in. (67.6 × 9.2 × 10.8 cm)
Overall (includes mount): 27 1/4 × 6 × 4 1/2 in. (69.2 × 15.2 × 11.4 cm)

Credit Line Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 82.32

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About this Work

Carved almost certainly as part of a male/female pair, figures like this one and the wood carving tradition of Atauro Island more generally are not well understood by Western scholars, and their exact function is still unknown. Believed to represent an ancestor, part of a founding couple for a particular family, the presence of the suckling babies is a symbol of fertility.

Provenance
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Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"Female Figure | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=82.32