Cleveland Museum of Art

Face Mask

Date

early 1900s

Medium

Wood, paint, and colorant

Culture

Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, possibly Yaure-style carver

Department

African Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Central Côte d'Ivoire is characterized by cultural assimilation and adoption. Connections can be seen in masquerades and in composite mask forms. Here, masks often blend human and animal features, and the depiction of elephant traits is a recurring theme. Yaure peoples associated elephant masks with a cult called Dye, and they appear when important sacrifices have to be made. The carver compressed the scale of both the elephant's ears and tusks in this mask.

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