Headdress
Unknown Artist
early 1900s
Medium
Wood, human hair, paint, and possibly kaolin
Dimensions
20.4 × 17.8 × 16.2 cm
Classification
Mask
Department
African Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund
Accession Number
1964.444
About this artwork
This was used in masked performances of the Agrinya society, a powerful guild formerly restricted to men who had killed an elephant, lion, or man. The white pigment connotes the realm of the ancestors, while the aggressive expression of the face seems to suggest the courage of Agrinya society members.