© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

ClassificationsAfrican Art

Gelede Mask

Place CreatedIdahin, Benin, Africa

CultureWestern Yoruba, Ketu subgroup

Datelate 19th Century

MediumWood, pigment

Credit LineEx coll. William S. Arnett

Dimensions18 1/2 x 18 7/8 x 13 3/8 in. (47 x 47.9 x 34 cm)

Object number1994.004.779

Label TextThe Gelede associations found in Western Yorubaland sponsor periodic masquerade festivals to honor and placate the powers which confer and withhold fertility. These powers in turn are associated with Iyanla, the Great Mother as well as with the oldest women of the community. This special capability, known as ase, is usually exercised in covert ways. In its antisocial forms, it works under cover of darkness through the agency of certain nocturnal animals. Here the mask carver has ingeniously represented a supernatural encounter in the form of four snakes, two in front and two in back, in the act of attacking two leaping hares who symbolize the covert powers of the night.
Exhibition HistoryAfrican Artistry: Technique and Aesthetic in Yoruba Sculpture, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, April 17 - May 25, 1980
Art of Nigeria from the William S. Arnett Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, October 15, 1994 - January 2, 1995
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 2, February 1997 - July 1998
Published ReferencesHenry John Drewal, African Artistry: Technique and Aesthetics in Yoruba Sculpture (Atlanta: The High Museum of Art, 1980), 76, number 133.

ProvenanceEx coll. William S. Arnett (1939-2020), Atlanta, Georgia, by 1980.

Status

Not on view

Collections