Ceremonial mask

The Sicán culture flourished in northern Peru between A.D. 700 and 1300. This mask depicts the most important human image in Sicán art, a mythic or religious figure called the Sicán Lord. Dallas’s mask is characteristically horizontal, with comma‑shaped eyes, a prominent nose, and a rectangular flange at each side, which typically supported circular ear ornaments. The eyes of the mask are overlaid with copper, which has oxidized to a deep green, and traces of red on the forehead and cheeks show that it, like other masks, was painted with cinnabar. A similar mask from Huaca Loro (Sicán National Museum, Ferreñafe, Peru) was accompanied by a headdress of silver and gold, indicating that such masks represented an element of elaborate ceremonial regalia.