{
"data": {
"id": 166209,
"accession_number": "2008.150",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Female Mask (Gambanda or Kambanda), early 1900s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pende-style maker. 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 2008.150",
"current_location": "108A African",
"title": "Female Mask (Gambanda or Kambanda)",
"creation_date": "early 1900s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1901,
"creation_date_latest": 1920,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pende-style maker"
],
"technique": "Wood, plant fiber, and colorant",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Mask",
"measurements": "Overall: 27 x 22 x 28.5 cm (10 5/8 x 8 11/16 x 11 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.27,
"height_inch": 10,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.22,
"width_inch": 8,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"depth": 0.285,
"depth_inch": 11,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.25
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Arts Premiers d'Afrique Noire, Cr\u00e9dit Communal de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium (March 5\u2013April 17, 1977).",
"opening_date": "1977-03-05T05:00:00Z"
},
{
"description": "Faces of the Spirits: Masks from the Zaire Basin, Etnografische Museum, Antwerp, Belgium (1993).",
"opening_date": null
},
{
"description": "Faces of the Spirits: Masks from the Zaire Basin, National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C. (April 20\u2013September 25, 1994).",
"opening_date": "1994-04-20T04:00:00Z"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Field-collected by Belgian territorial administrator, Maurice Matton, in the Bandundu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then still Belgian Congo)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1934",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Ex collection Annie and Jean-Pierre Jernander, Brussels, Belgium",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131996",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, France, lot 29, June 29, 1996, sold to private collection)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "June 29, 1996",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Private collection",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1996\u20132008",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "(Sotheby's, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2008",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2008\u2013",
"sortorder": 6
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This female mask would have performed in a collective multimedia event with audience participation.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"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. Pende sculptors inherited their position and often worked on the outskirts of the village so that few could see them at work.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2008.150-female-mask-gambanda"
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},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Guimiot, Philippe and Lucien Van de Velde. Arts Premiers d'Afrique, Noire. Brussels: Cr\u00e9dit Communal de Belgique, 1977.",
"page_number": "fig. 94",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Bastin, Marie-Louise. Introduction aux Arts d'Afrique Noire. Arnouville: Arts d'Afrique Noire (91), 1984.",
"page_number": "fig. 330",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Herreman, Frank, Constantijn Petridis, et al. Face of the Spirits: Masks from the Zaire Basin. Gent: Snoeck-Ducaju, 1993.",
"page_number": "fig. 22",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "de Grunne, M. Bernard. Importarte Vente d'Art Africain Collection: A. et J. P. Jernander. Bruxelles: Droutot-Richelieu, 1996.",
"page_number": "lot 29",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Strother, Z. S. Inventing Masks: Agency and History in the Art of the Central Pende. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.",
"page_number": "plate 6",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Strother, Z. S. Pende: The Experience of Art. Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2008.",
"page_number": "plate 24, p. 106",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Sotheby's. Cataloguing Preview: Arts d'Afrique et d'Oc\u00e9anie. 2008.",
"page_number": "lot 47",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Sotheby's. Arts d'Afrique et d'Oc\u00e9anie, d'Asie du Sud-Est: Importantes Collections. 2008. Paris: Sotheby's (December 4, 2008).",
"page_number": "pp. 202\u2013203",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantine. \"New Acquisitions of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art\". African Arts. (44) No. 1, Spring 2011. Pg. 65, Fig. 13.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 34-35",
"url": ""
},
{
"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. 275, no. 9.11",
"url": ""
}
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"creditline": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 166209,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2008-12-08T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1901,
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"date_text": "early 1900s",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Female Face Mask (Gambanda)",
"GAMBANDA"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:34:49.119000"
}
}