H x W x D: 33.7 x 19.4 x 18.4 cm (13 1/4 x 7 5/8 x 7 1/4 in.)
Type:
Mask
Geography:
Nigeria
Date:
Mid 20th century
Label Text:
This mask appears to represent a camel, not a typical subject for a Yoruba mask, and one that could fit into two masquerades. Gelede is a masquerade to honor and placate the "mothers," incarnate forces of thwarted fertility and spiritual power who are less diplomatically referred to as witches. Egungun masquerades, held annually throughout Yorubaland, honor the spirits of ancestors. Both masquerades are thought to entertain their audience, living and non-living, and to instruct the living spectators. Therefore both masquerades have a category of satiric or genre characters that includes animals. Typically the animal relates to a deity or conveys a moral lesson. The camel may be related to the more common character of the Islamic man from northern Nigeria identified by his dress, hat, beard or scarification.
Since good and beautiful are equated this category often deliberately breaks the rules of Yoruba art.
Description:
Wood cap mask in the form of an animal, possibly a camel, with long rounded nose, long narrow ears and overall white pigment.
Provenance:
Emil J. Arnold, New York, -- to 1968
Exhibition History:
The Language of African Art, Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution Fine Arts & Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., May 24-September 7, 1970, no. 312
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