Mask (wan-balinga)
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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
612 × 900 px · WebP
Suggested credit
Mask (wan-balinga) (early 1900s). Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund Rights: CC0. https://clevelandart.org/art/2014.1

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

Only the farmers among the Mossi people employ masks. This mask’s proper name, wan-balinga , evokes a mythical figure who was the mother of the first Mossi ruler. Such masks are most typically worn and danced with on the occasion of the funeral of a male or female elder as escorts of the corpse to the grave. They also appear during annual memorial services that occur months after the actual burial, when all the deceased clan members are commemorated and honored.

Lupin’s visual index

A weathered wooden mask with intricate geometric patterns and a stylized facial expression rests on a black stand.

Machine-assisted description · useful for discovery, not scholarship.
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Mask (wan-balinga)

Mask (wan-balinga)
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