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Type:	mask
Ethnic Group:	Pende
Country:	Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)
ECU Number:	L0028
Description:	This wood face mask has a fiber coiffure, pigments and raffia suspensions, and a woven fiber head cover on the back. The Western Pende (Kwango) style is characterized by stylized realism, portraiture and caricature. Their masks have heavy-lidded and triangular, half-closed eyes, an angular nose, cheek scarification, and a downward mouth.
Significance researched to date:	The Western Pende (Kwango) are known as the Òkeepers of traditional style,Ó which is characterized by stylized realism, portraiture and caricature. Masks display heavy-lidded and triangular, half-closed eyes, an angular nose, cheek scarification, and a downward mouth. This wood mask is covered with red pigment and has white kaolin clay pigment under the chin and lining the hairline, eye slits and mouth, and black pigment on the eyebrows, eyelids, tip of the nose, and lips.(Felix, 140-142)