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Source Description
Headdresses or crest masks made of antelope skin stretched over a carved head are a distinctive art form of the Cross River region in southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. Worldwide, this practice is unique. This female evocation of ideal feminine beauty was most probably worn by an Ejagham woman in the context of a female society called Ekpa, which was responsible for girls' education in preparation for marriage. The headdress represents a girl who evokes ideal female beauty and is ready for marriage. The depicted hairstyle was worn during the coming-out ceremony following the girls’ seclusion.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
155510
label
Headdress
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
155510
contentType
object
title
Headdress
description
Headdresses or crest masks made of antelope skin stretched over a carved head are a distinctive art form of the Cross River region in southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. Worldwide, this practice is unique. This female evocation of ideal feminine beauty was most probably worn by an Ejagham woman in the context of a female society called Ekpa, which was responsible for girls' education in preparation for marriage. The headdress represents a girl who evokes ideal female beauty and is ready for marriage. The depicted hairstyle was worn during the coming-out ceremony following the girls’ seclusion.
date
early 1900s
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Mask
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 67.3 x 43.2 x 43.2 cm (26 1/2 x 17 x 17 in.)
cul
Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Ejagham-style maker
accession
1990.23
Source extras
tec
Wood, rawhide, cane, paint, bone, natural fiber, and metal
tombstone
Headdress, early 1900s. Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Ejagham-style maker. Wood, rawhide, cane, paint, bone, natural fiber, and metal; overall: 67.3 x 43.2 x 43.2 cm (26 1/2 x 17 x 17 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 1990.23
collection
African Art
didYouKnow
Look closely along the sides of the nostrils, upper eyelids, and around the mouth. The impressions of twisted yarn shows how the hide was carefully held in place while it dried to precisely fit the sculpted wooden core.
citations
citation
Drewal, Henry John. "Notable Acquisitions." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.
page_number
Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 113
citation
Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Cleveland Museum of Art." <em>African Arts</em> 30, no. 1 (1997).
page_number
pp. 66-71
citation
Petridis, Constantijn. <em>South of the Sahara: Selected Works of African Art. </em>Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. 29, p. 88 - 89
citation
Petridis, Constantine. "A New Installation for African Art in Cleveland." <em>Tribal </em>3, no. 36 (Autumn/Winter 2004).
page_number
pp. 68-73
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: P. 32-33
citation
Smith, Fred T., Judith Perani, Joseph L. Underwood, and Martha J. Ehrlich. The Visual Arts of Africa : Gender, Power, and Life Cycle Rituals. Second edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 220, no. 7.15
creditline
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
updatedAt
2026-06-01 19:16:18.175000
sourceId
155510
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
Wood, rawhide, cane, paint, bone, natural fiber, and metal
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
8dfe462d854da172