Helmet Mask (Murume Ankalab or Mzanz a Muanga) Artist: François Musau (1920- ?)
Artist: Christophore Mabila (died 1967)

1952

African Art

On view, 1st floor, African Art

This bell-shaped mask was originally part of a set of five masking characters that represented a family. This conical mask was the father or chief of the village leading the group; the others, of a completely different shape, were the mother and three children. The group was created by two artists based on earlier models that had last been performed in 1933 and have since perished. Until that time, these kinds of masks appeared only when twins were born to guarantee their well-being. This mask and its set were carved in 1952 to celebrate the installation of an abbot in Ine Mzanz, and the mask was performed again in 1959 on the occasion of the founding of a Catholic mission in the area. It is therefore also a testament to the ways in which masking traditions are kept alive while their purposes change.

Medium

Wood, pigment, and fiber

Dimensions

37 1/4 × 11 5/8 in. (94.6 × 29.5 cm)

Credit Line

Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection

Accession Number

2006.51.350

Geography

Ine Mzanz, Southern Kete region, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Culture

Kete

Period

20th century

Classification

Masks

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Daniel Hourde, Paris: unknown date-May 1988
Charles B. Benenson Collection, donated to Yale University Art Gallery in 2004
Bibliography
  • Frederick John Lamp, Amanda Maples, and Laura M. Smalligan, Accumulating Histories: African Art from the Charles B. Benenson Collection at the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2012), 229, ill
  • "Acquisitions, July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006," in "Photography at Yale," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2006), 222
  • Susan Vogel and Jerry L. Thompson, Closeup: Lessons in the Art of Seeing African Sculpture from an American Collection and the Horstmann Collection, exh. cat. (New York: Museum for African Art, 1990), 175, fig. 106
  • Martien Coppens, Negro Sculpture: A Photographic Approach (Eidhoven: Lecturis, 1975), fig. 243–244
  • R. Ceyssens, "Les Masques en bois de kete du Sud, region du Kasai occidental, Republique Zaire," Africa-Tervuren (1974), fig. 4a
Object copyright
Copyright Undetermined
Additional information

Object/Work type

ceremonial objects, masks (costume)

Subject

men

Technical metadata and APIs

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