FAQ
Face Mask. Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lele artist, late 19th or early 20th century. Wood, pigments, fiber, 13 x 8 1/2 in. (33 x 21.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Milton and Frieda Rosenthal, Carll H. de Silver Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 82.160
The Lele make masks that have much in common with those of their Bushoong, Shoowa, and Ngeende neighbors of the Kuba kingdom but are much more rare. Stylistically, they are usually much flatter than those of the Kuba and are generally decorated with red and white pigments. This Lele carver made imaginative and skillful use of pigment to underline volume contrasts such as the convex, almond-shaped eyes–with multiple eyebrows stacked on top of each other to accentuate the eyes–and the pronounced relief of the nose, ears, and cicatrization marks.
The masks appear principally at the funerals of chiefs and elders but are also used in annual performances that celebrate and teach the history of Lele origins and migrations. In those performances, they are associated with the founding clans of the communities, who have superior status to the members of clans that arrived later.
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum