Headdress (Zigiren-Wɔndɛ) (early to mid-1900s): Art, History and Details

Headdress (Zigiren-Wɔndɛ) (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:

Owned and used for entertainment by young unmarried men only among some Baga subgroups, this type of headdress is said to represent the Maiden, a beautiful young woman. With a beaded necklace and eyes embellished with furniture tacks, the headdress was attached to a cone-shaped costume consisting of colorful cloths and raffia and constructed over a bamboo armature.

Object facts

• Title: Headdress (Zigiren-Wɔndɛ)
• Date: early to mid-1900s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Guinea, Baga-style carver
• Type: Mask
• Technique: Wood, glass beads, upholstery studs, and natural fiber
• Dimensions: Overall: 52.1 x 15.6 cm (20 1/2 x 6 1/8 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1964.376

A detail from the museum

The performer of this mask grasped the projecting "legs" to steady it while balancing it on his head.

Collection credit

Gift of Edgar A. Hahn

Further reading listed by the museum

• Robbins, Warren M. African Art in American Collections = L'art Africain Dans Les Collections Americaines. New York: F.A. Praeger, 1966.
• Robbins, Warren M. African sculpture. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub, 2005.

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.