Chokwe Wood Mask, Angola

White eyes, filed teeth and a level gaze, under a hood of knotted hemp.

This mask is by the Chokwe peoples of Angola, made of wood, pigment and hemp. Chokwe masks in this delicate style are generally linked to pwo, an idealized ancestral woman, and they were danced in public by men to honor female beauty and fertility. The reddish face is carved with cross-in-circle marks on the cheeks and a fan-shaped sign on the brow. White pigment rims the narrow eyes. Netted hemp forms a cap and falls behind the chin. Ten inches high.

An ideal of womanhood, carved by men and danced by them.