Chancay Pre-Columbian Mask

A red face, wide shell-white eyes, and a thin dark line falling below one of them.

This Pre-Columbian mask is from the Chancay people of Peru, dated 1000 to 1470 CE, in wood, pigment and camelid wool. Chancay families prepared their dead as wrapped funerary bundles, and masks like this were commonly fixed to the top to give the bundle a face, standing for the person within. The flat wooden face is painted red, with a carved nose and a short curved mouth. Above it sits a net cap of orange and gold, with a woven band and a tassel fringe. Nine inches wide and ten high.

Its expression has not changed. It was not meant to.