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What types of materials were masks made from?
The most commonly used material for masks is wood, although a wide variety of other elements can be used, including light stone such as steatite, metals such as copper or bronze, different types of fabric, pottery, and more. Some masks are painted (for example using ochre or other natural colorants).
What materials were used to create ancient masks?
Ancient Aztecs, in Latin America, used masks to cover the faces of the dead. They made them from leather in the beginning, but later started making them from copper and gold. Except for ritual purposes, from the ancient times masks were used in theatre.
What are portrait masks?
Portrait masks characteristically have an oval face with an elongated nose, small, open mouth, downcast slit eyes with projecting pieces that extend beyond the crest to suggest animal horns. Most also have scarification patterns at the temple and a high gloss patina.
How were traditional African masks made?
They are made from wood, pottery, textiles, copper and bronze. Details could be made from animal teeth, hair, bones and horns as well as feathers, seashells and even straw and egg shells. African masks are most commonly shaped like a human face or a muzzle of some animal.
What is the Baule mask made of?
wood
Thishighly decorative Baule dance mask from Ivory Coast is hand-carved from wood with a rich glossy patina. A Hornbill bird; known as “Calao”, is perched on top the the mask. The Baule are part of the Akan people of Côte D’ivoire, also famous for the Goli mask.
What material is the kwele mask made of?
white kaolin clay
Kwele masks have two large horns which sometimes encircle and frame the face. Areas of the face are often painted with white kaolin clay, the color of the spirits. Kwele ‘ekuk’ masks are beautifully stylised with a heart shaped face, almond shaped eyes and a small or non-existent mouth.
Who made the portrait mask?
by Dr. Peri Klemm. The 400,000 Baule who live in central Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa have a rich carving tradition.
What are Kota masks used for?
Their masks, painted white to symbolize death, represent dead female ancestors, though they are worn by male relatives of the deceased. The Kota create stylistically unique reliquary figures, called mbulu-ngulu, which are covered with a sheet of brass or copper.
What does a Baule mask look like?
The Baule assimilated a number of their neighbors’ masquerade forms: a naturalistic face mask, a horned helmet mask, and a flat circular mask called kple kple. The flat, disk-shaped face with ringed eyes and rectangular mouth is surmounted by ears and large curving horns.