Egúngún Masquerade Dance Costume
Egúngún Masquerade Dance Costume
Attribution follows a published museum catalogue or peer-reviewed scholarship. Object is held in a public collection under a published accession number.
Swirling into motion, egúngún masquerade costumes appear during annual festivities to bless the community. Manifesting ancestral spirits, they serve as a bridge between the living and the otherworld. The fabric panels create a dwelling place for ancestral spirits. Arranged and selected according to Yorùbá design sense (ojú-ọnà), this mask incorporates hundreds of African, Asian, and European fabrics. These include imported damasks, velvets, faux furs, and embroideries, as well as local indigo-dyed cottons.
Catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art as “Egúngún Masquerade Dance Costume”, dated 1900s. Harvested from the museum’s open-access record; every field below is copied from that record and none of it has been inferred.
Record
| People / culture | Yoruba |
|---|---|
| Country | Benin, Nigeria |
| Common name | Egúngún Masquerade Dance Costume |
| Materials | cotton, velvet, flannel, dye, faux fur, leather, cowrie shells |
| Dimensions | Overall: 167.6 x 66 x 40.6 cm (66 x 26 x 16 in.) |
Provenance
Katherine C. White (?-1977)
The Cleveland Museum of Art by gift (1977-)
| Collection | Cleveland Museum of Art |
|---|---|
| Accession number | 1976.187 |
Source
https://clevelandart.org/art/1976.187
This record is a catalogue entry, not an appraisal, valuation or legal determination. Nothing here should be read as evidence that an object was lawfully acquired or exported.