Headdress (Ago Egungun)
Yoruba (Yoruba; Abeokuta, Nigeria; Coastal West Africa)
Mid–late 19th century
- Medium
- Wood and pigment
- Classification
- Mask
- Dimensions
- 33.1 × 23.2 × 23.5 cm (13 × 9 1/8 × 9 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Nigeria
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Africa
- Credit line
- Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Egungun, a widespread Yoruba masquerade, is staged to honor the ancestors and the newly deceased, who continue to influence the lives of their kin. Organized at funerals, on family occasions, and during annual or biennial festivals, the different types of egungun are each associated with a distinctive cloth costume, some of which include a wooden mask or headdress. The tufted hairstyle of this example mimics the flap of a hunter’s cap that hides protective medicines.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
