Face Mask with Female Figure (satimbe) (early to mid-1900s): Art, History and Details

Face Mask with Female Figure (satimbe) (early to mid-1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Dogon masks are worn at the end-of-mourning ceremonies called dama. The masks incarnate ancestors, which can be human, animal, or vegetal. The female figure with raised arms topping this example represents the mythical character Yasigine, who played a key role in the very first sigi celebration. Held every 60 years, the sigi ceremony commemorates the arrival of death.

Object facts

• Title: Face Mask with Female Figure (satimbe)
• Date: early to mid-1900s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Mali, Dogon-style blacksmith-carver
• Type: Mask
• Technique: Wood and organic materials
• Dimensions: Overall: 111.1 cm (43 3/4 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1960.169

A detail from the museum

This mask is one of several hundred that may perform at the ceremony called dama.

Collection credit

James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Damase, Jacques. Sculpture of the Tellem and the Dogon, exh. cat. New York: Pierre Matisse Gallery, 1960), no. 40.
• Wixom, William D. 1977. “African Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art.” African Arts 10, no. 3: 16-25, 88, fig. 11.
• Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. "An Obsession with Heads: The Impact of African Arts, Anthropology, and Photography on the Works of Alberto Giacometti," Medium (May 2022).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.