The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 19, 2025

Female Mask (Gambanda or Kambanda)

early 1900s
Wood, plant fiber, and colorant
Overall: 27 x 22 x 28.5 cm (10 5/8 x 8 11/16 x 11 1/4 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2008.150
Location: 108A Sub-Saharan

Did You Know?

This female mask would have performed in a collective multimedia event with audience participation.

Description

Realized in typical Central Pende style, this mask is believed to represent gambanda, the chief's wife. In light of Pende theories about gender and physiognomy, the mask is an ideal expression of a woman's facial features and thus reflects her calm, obedient, peaceful, and self-controlled demeanor. The intricate hairstyle consisting of hundreds of miniature twists imitates a once fashionable hairdo.
  • 1934
    Field-collected by Belgian territorial administrator, Maurice Matton, in the Bandundu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then still Belgian Congo)
    ?–1996
    Ex collection Annie and Jean-Pierre Jernander, Brussels, Belgium
    June 29, 1996
    (Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, France, lot 29, June 29, 1996, sold to private collection)
    1996–2008
    Private collection
    2008
    (Sotheby's, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2008–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Petridis, Constantine. "New Acquisitions of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art". African Arts. (44) No. 1, Spring 2011. Pg. 65, Fig. 13.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 34-35
    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. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 275, no. 9.11
  • {{cite web|title=Female Mask (Gambanda or Kambanda)|url=false|author=|year=early 1900s|access-date=19 March 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2008.150