Object Details
- Label Text
- For the Yoruba, those who have died remain part of the community, seperated from but still connected to their descendents. While traditions and formal details vary between the regional subgroups, all egungun masquerades honor the ancestors and convey valuable social messages as to proper behavior. The masks take a wide variety of shapes and materials from layered cloth panels to carved wooden face and helmet masks. The satiric character mask (idan) is somewhat hard to understand since it often deliberately breaks the rules of what the Yoruba consider beautiful and good. Characters include animals, and stock personages such as the devotee, the drunk and the prostitute. This wood face mask probably represents a foreigner, a non-Yoruba such as a Dahomean, a Hausa or a westerner. The foreigner is shown as someone with distorted, bloated features and the implication is that his moral qualities are as distorted as his appearance.
- Description
- Human face with puffed out cheeks, coffee bean eyes with cut out slit and pierced nostrils. Traces of yellow pigment and silver paint remain on the face.
- Provenance
- Herman H. Kahn, New York, -- to 1969
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Yoruba artist
- Date
- Mid 20th century
- Credit Line
- Gift of Herman H. Kahn
- Medium
- Wood, pigment, paint
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 25.1 x 20.6 x 10.8 cm (9 7/8 x 8 1/8 x 4 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Mask
