Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, possibly Yaure-style carver / early 1900s
Face Mask
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Face Mask as mask (Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, possibly Yaure-style carver · early 1900s).
The carver compressed the scale of both the elephant's ears and tusks in this mask.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this mask as Wood, paint, and colorant.
The museum's collection notes: Central Côte d'Ivoire is characterized by cultural assimilation and adoption. Connections can be seen in masquerades and in composite mask forms. Here, masks often blend human and animal features, and the depiction of elephant traits is a recurring theme. Yaure peoples associated elephant masks with a cult called Dye, and they appear when important sacrifices have to be made.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtFace MaskOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.