The Gelede Mask

3D Model

From the collection of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, UK.

The mask, likely from Otta, capital of Aworri state, was obtained by Francis Pinkett, a colonial administrator in Nigeria, between about 1900 and 1910. The mask is one of 200 items of Yoruba and Benin origin in the RAMM. The Yoruba is a group of about ten million people and is considered the most art-producing people in Southwest Nigeria. Pinkett’s widow first placed her husband’s collection on loan in 1927, later converting the loan into a gift for the museum. This mask is made of pigmented wood: head with pointed chin, face is generic woman face and painted white (which has been mostly removed), ribbed chevron female hairstyle (the hair is a signifier of where someone comes from)