Mask for Igbile Society
| Culture | Edo |
|---|---|
| Title | Mask for Igbile Society (Ighodo) |
| Date | Before 1897 |
| Medium | Wood, incrustation, pigment, and and fiber |
| Dimensions | Mount: 5 3/4 × 3 × 3 in. (14.6 × 7.6 × 7.6 cm) Object: 24 3/4 × 7 5/8 × 7 5/8 in. (62.9 × 19.4 × 19.4 cm) Overall: 24 3/4 × 7 5/8 × 7 5/8 in. (62.9 × 19.4 × 19.4 cm) |
| Credit Line | Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 78.11.2 |
| This artwork is currently on view. | |
A mask with a round, human face and a tall headdress made of three tall wooden bars rising from the top of the head, connected at the top by a horizontal wooden bar. The forehead and the wooden bars of the headdress are carved with geometric patterns.
Water spirits are important sources of power in several West African cultures for their abilities to cross between worlds of the living and ancestral realm. During the nineteenth century, performers at masquerades danced in ighodo masks at annual purification ceremonies. In 1897, British officials raided and looted Benin Kingdom’s palace, which prompted the use of ighodo masks, including this one, to drive away British officials. Thousands of royal objects were taken back to Britain and eventually entered public and private collections worldwide.
Records indicate that British officials acquired this ighodo mask in 1897. It subsequently entered a collection in Paris before traveling to the Allan Frumkin Gallery in Chicago, where Raymond Wielgus purchased it in 1975. The Eskenazi Museum is committed to transparency in sharing collection histories and will update this text as new information comes to light.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"Mask for Igbile Society | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=78.11.2