Helmet Mask
Unknown Artist
early to mid-1900s
Medium
wood
Dimensions
h. 122 cm
Classification
Mask
Department
African Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Katherine C. White
Accession Number
1972.336
About this artwork
The iconography of this helmet mask is comprised of sculpted renderings of different animal attributes including a ram's horns, a warthog's tusks, a crocodile's mouth, and a hyena's snout. Carved between the long antelope horns is a miniature chameleon that holds an abstract wing-shaped motif called mangele. Intended to impress and terrify, the sculpture's fearsome aesthetic alludes to the mask's power as an anti-sorcery device.