10 UMMA Objects
Sort by

Wooden helmet-shaped mask with a large central dome. From the front two flat plates form a mouth, with triangular ears on each side while two curved horns extend back. There is a crack along the center of the mask that appears to have been repaired locally with pitch or tar.
Chamba (Chamba (Nigerian))
Mask
1900 – 1974
Museum Purchase
1974/2.27
This carved, wooden Yaka figure depicts a man standing with an animal perched atop his head. The carving is stylized and exhibits characteristics typically seen among northern Yaka figural representations: flexed knees; arms bent with upturned palms positioned at shoulder level; and, an animal figure upon its head. In this case, the creature has a curved body and appears to be an anteater. The male figure has a narrow, cylindrical body; a slightly protruding belly; a simple coiffure; an elongated face; barely-open eyes from which vertical lines extend downward; a disproportionately large, pointed nose, and a darkened beard.
Yaka (Yaka (Kwango-Kwilu region style))
Figure
1915 – 1925
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.193
Elaborately carved staff with, from the top: a male figure wearing Western-style clothes, with painted eyes, eyebrows, mouth, moustache, hat and clothes, sitting on a simple stool, resting his hands on his knees; a U-shaped snake on one side and a mortar on the other; a pair of a male and a female figure on either side (the male is standing on one leg, bending the other at the knee to make a triangle); a dark black spherical form; a row of three turtles on one side and two salamanders and a frog on the other; and finally three outstretched snakes (painted yellow, brown and red, respectively), one of them eating a small frog.
Kongo (Kongo (culture or style))
Staff
1900 – 1950
Gift of Margaret H. and Albert J. Coudron
2001/2.42

Franz Marc
Tierlegende
1912
Gift of Jean Paul Slusser
1962/2.24
This handscroll is a facsimile of the twelfth or thirteenth century Frolicking Animals Scroll (Chōjū jinbutsu giga) that depicts anthropomorphic monkeys, frogs, foxes and rabbits in various scenes. The scroll is painted in monochromatic ink with lively brushwork. The scroll contains no written text, and the discrete scenes of the scroll are separated by short stretches of landscape. The scroll appears to narrate the events of a festival held by various animals, culminating in a Buddhist ceremony. The scroll begins with a scene of rabbits and monkeys ritually washing themselves in a river. The next scene shows frogs and rabbits engaged in an archery competition. Frogs, foxes and rabbits watch as a rabbit nocks an arrow and takes aim at the target made of a large lotus leaf. Behind the figure, a group of rabbit teammates look on with excitement, while the frogs seem dismayed at the rabbit’s apparent skill. The next scene depicts rabbits, frogs and a fox dressed in robes bringing storage boxes out towards
Toba Sōjō
Kozan-ji Makimono: Scroll with Animal Caricatures (Hares and Frogs) [facsimile]
1935 – 1945
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker
1948/1.120
In the center of this painting, there is Mt. Fuji. Next to the peak of the mountain, to the left of the painting, there is a crescent moon and clouds. To the bottom right of the painting, there are green hills with trees that have red fall leaves on them. Next to these trees, there is one lone deer looking up to the sky. At the bottom of the Mountain, there is a river.
Hanabusa Itchō
Mt. Fuji in Autumn
1700 – 1732
Gift of Mr. Harold Phillip Stern for the James Marshall Plumer Memorial Collection
1963/2.59
A flat wooden stick coming to a point at each end. It has an abstract design on the surface as a well two 3D animals.
Ainu
Ikupasuy (Prayer Stick)
Gift of Mrs. Caroline J. Plumer
1991/1.81
This short, elaborately carved Kongo staff features a diverse range of forms, both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic. From the top, a standing male figure wears a Western-style suit and brimmed hat and holds a small box in his hands; below, an unclothed standing female figure carries a child on her back. Further down are smaller figural representations: a kneeling figure in a position of prayer, a turtle, and a bird on one side and a bird, a turtle, a ram’s horn, and a cross on the other.  
Kongo (Kongo (culture or style))
Staff
1900 – 1950
Gift of Margaret H. and Albert J. Coudron
2001/2.64
This wooden, zoomorphic Bembe <em>alunga</em> mask represents an owl. The mask has an elongated, bell-shaped form, with much of its base pigmented black. The owl has two white, oval-shaped, concave oracular cavities with protruding, half-moon eyes and a long, narrow beak. The foot of the mask features two serpents that have been carved in relief and painted red, both of which are surrounded by white, geometric motifs.  
Bembe (Bembe (Kongo))
Mask
1925 – 1935
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.194
Two cubs lay beneath their mother, whose back is to the viewer, yet curves her head around to face outwards.  Her eyes are golden, and look out towards the viewer.  One cub looks up at its mother with closed eyes.  The mother's white whiskers stand out against the otherwise warm, golden tones of the painting.
Konoshima Ōkoku
Tigress and Cubs
1900 – 1949
Museum purchase made possible by a gift from Helmut Stern
1989/2.6
Loading…