On view
Pwoom itok mask,
early 20th century
More Context
Handbook Entry
The Kuba kingdom, a confederation of different ethnic groups, dates from the sixteenth century. This wooden mask, carved by either a Bushoong or Ngeende carver, both major subgroups within the Kuba confederation, would have been used in the initiation rites of young males as they pass to adulthood, or as a dance mask. The mask is notable for the particular treatment of the eyes, which are surrounded by holes carved in a deeply recessed socket. The flaring nostrils of the nose and the stylized mouth are common features in this type of mask; the sloping forehead is extended by fabric that likely covered a structure made of raffia or cane. Masks such as these were frequently painted with the traditional geometric designs of the Kuba peoples, but if this mask was once painted, the pigments have been lost over time.
Information
early 20th century
Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1980", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 40, no. 1 (1981): p. 14-31., p. 24 (illus.)
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 29 (illus.)
- "Selected checklist of objects in the collection of African art," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 58, no. 1/2 (1999): p. 77–83., p. 79
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 141 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), pg. 308
