Mask (mwana pwo)

Artist Unknown, African, Chokwe Peoples Angola1885/1895

Details

Title: Mask (mwana pwo)
Creator: Artist Unknown, African, Chokwe Peoples Angola
Date Created: 1885/1895
Location: Angola, Africa
Physical Dimensions: w28.6 x h30.1 x d17 mm (work with base)
Label Copy: This Mwana Pwo mask represents an original ancestor and the embodiment of feminine ideals in Chokwe masquerades. All Mwana Pwo masks share formal similarities, such as almond-shaped eyes, an open mouth, and a delicate chin, expressing a notion of timeless beauty. Some features, however, are less fixed: the hairstyle, scarification patterns, and chingelyengelye cross motif seen here all speak to the carver's personal and more contemporary conception of beauty. The mask provides a timeless framework to which fashions are affixed, discarded, and changed, perhaps one day to be regarded as timeless themselves.
Type: Costume and Costume Accessory
External Link: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2005-sl-1.201/2005_1_201.JPG?lasttype=boolean;lastview=thumbnail;resnum=1;sel9=ic_exact;size=20;sort=relevance;start=1;subview=detail;view=entry;rgn1=musart_an;select1=starts;q1=2005%2F1.201
Medium: wood, tukula powder, clay, string, metal, fur, snakeskin, cloth

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