Headdress
Unknown Artist
early 1900s
Medium
Wood, rawhide, cane, paint, bone or ivory, natural fiber, and metal
Dimensions
67.3 × 43.2 × 43.2 cm
Classification
Mask
Department
African Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
Accession Number
1990.23
About this artwork
Headdresses or crest masks made of antelope skin stretched over a carved head are a distinctive art form of the Cross River region in southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. This female evocation of ideal feminine beauty was most probably worn by an Ejagham woman in the context of a female society called Ekpa, which was responsible for the education of girls in preparation for marriage.