Provenance

Unidentified member of the Chokwe society, Angola [see note 1]; acquired in Bie, Angola by Luiz Teixeira (born 1904), Portugal, 1932 [see note 2]; Diogo de Macedo (1889–1959), Lisbon, and by descent; sold to Entwistle and Co. (Lance and Roberta Entwistle, dealers), London, by 1978; sold to Charles B. Benenson (1913–2004), Greenwich, Conn., July 1, 1983; bequeathed to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2004

Note 1: One of the twelve clans of the Lunda empire in seventeenth and eighteenth century Angola, the Chokwe are an ethnic group of Central and Southern Africa. Historically worn by the chief, his son, nephew, or another high-ranking member of society, Chihongo masks were owned by those authorized to wear them.

Note 2: Mask Representing a Male Ancestor (Chihongo)’s ownership has historically been associated with Portugese journalist Luiz Teixeira. Teixeira traveled through the African subcontinent in the early 1930s including in Angola. Chronicled in his publication, Na Roda do Batuque (1932), Teixeira describes encountering a ceremony south of the Bie province in which a Chihongo mask was used, and was photographed alongside the wearer of the mask. Although Teixiera describes encountering the mask’s wearer later in his journey, the circumstances of the mask’s acquisition are unknown.