Helmet 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
737 × 893 px · WebP
Suggested credit
Helmet Mask (early to mid-1900s). Gift of Katherine C. White Rights: CC0. https://clevelandart.org/art/1975.152

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

This type of helmet was worn in rituals demonstrating a boy’s transition from one age group to the next, prior to his actual initiation into the secret Poro society. The pre-initiates were viewed as unknowing and anxious oxen, so the horns on such helmets may refer to those of horned cattle. The female figure alludes to women’s supernatural powers, which assure the welfare of Poro members.

Lupin’s visual index

A dark, weathered wooden mask depicts a large, horned face with a central mouth and a small female figure perched atop its head.

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