Minneapolis Institute of Art

Helmet mask

Luba artist

Date

19th century

Medium

Wood, pigments

Culture

Luba

Department

Arts of Global Africa

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This large mask, carved from a single piece of lightweight wood and colored black, white, and red, fit over a dancer’s head like a helmet. No information on its ceremonial usage was recorded when the mask was collected in the Democratic Republic of Congo, sometime in the early 1900s. The elaborate hairdo—three braids on either side of the face and a vertical, looped braid in back—is topped by a carved diadem, a headband-like crown of beaded raffia, characteristic of Luba chieftains. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa

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