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Helmet Mask
early 1900s
- Medium
- Wood, paint, organic material, and iron alloy
- Classification
- Mask
- Dimensions
- Overall: 33 x 63.5 x 41.9 cm (13 x 25 x 16 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon, possibly Kom-style maker
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, African Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William D. Wixom in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph M. Coe
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Deliberately distorted and exaggerated facial features reflect the awesome powers of a great chief. The quadrupeds on the mask’s head suggest the close association between the leopard and the king. In the Cameroon grasslands, masks are typically related to a regulatory society that guards ancestral mores; society members wear the masks and dance in the secrecy of the night.
