Female Mask (Gambanda or Kambanda) (early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Female Mask (Gambanda or Kambanda) (early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Realized in typical Central Pende style, this mask is believed to represent gambanda, the chief's wife. In light of Pende theories about gender and physiognomy, the mask is an ideal expression of a woman's facial features and thus reflects her calm, obedient, peaceful, and self-controlled demeanor. The intricate hairstyle consisting of hundreds of miniature twists imitates a once fashionable hairdo. Pende sculptors inherited their position and often worked on the outskirts of the village so that few could see them at work.

Object facts

• Title: Female Mask (Gambanda or Kambanda)
• Date: early 1900s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pende-style maker
• Type: Mask
• Technique: Wood, plant fiber, and colorant
• Dimensions: Overall: 27 x 22 x 28.5 cm (10 5/8 x 8 11/16 x 11 1/4 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 2008.150

A detail from the museum

This female mask would have performed in a collective multimedia event with audience participation.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Guimiot, Philippe and Lucien Van de Velde. Arts Premiers d'Afrique, Noire. Brussels: Crédit Communal de Belgique, 1977.
• Bastin, Marie-Louise. Introduction aux Arts d'Afrique Noire. Arnouville: Arts d'Afrique Noire (91), 1984.
• Herreman, Frank, Constantijn Petridis, et al. Face of the Spirits: Masks from the Zaire Basin. Gent: Snoeck-Ducaju, 1993.

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.