Face Mask
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Verified CC0

This record carries an explicit open-use marker in the source metadata. Download the publication copy or follow the museum record for its master image.

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Rights signal
CC0
Publication file
707 × 893 px · WebP
Suggested credit
Face Mask (possibly early 1900s). Gift of Katherine C. White Rights: CC0. https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.331

Vault de Lupin makes the source signal legible; it does not provide legal advice or replace the institution’s current rights statement.

From the museum record

A Dan face mask's use and the costume that accompanied it are important elements that contribute to the name it receives. While we don't know those details, we can say it originally had an elaborate fiber hairstyle attached through the holes around the edge. Based on its appearance and other similar examples, this face mask with a high forehead in northern Dan style may have been called either sagbwe or gunyege . As a "runner mask," it was engaged in running competitions once organized every Sunday during the dry season. As a "fire-watcher," its main task was to protect the village from fire when the dangerous desert wind called Harmattan blew during the dry season.

Lupin’s visual index

A weathered wooden mask, featuring circular silver eye inserts and a distressed surface, represents traditional African tribal art.

Machine-assisted description · useful for discovery, not scholarship.
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