Pende
Gitenga Mask
1933-1966
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Pende
Gitenga Mask
1933-1966
Physical Qualities
Great Blue Turaco feathers, fiber, wood, pigment, paint, Overall: 33 1/2 × 35 1/2 × 19 in. (85.1 × 90.2 × 48.3 cm.)
Credit Line
Purchased as the gift of Amy Gould and Matthew Polk, Gibson Island, Maryland
Object Number
2015.148
Gitenga, a powerful ancestral figure in eastern Pende communities in present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, is represented here in an abstract mask that incorporates natural materials from the Congolese rainforest. The woven, disc-like face and the white paint found on its surface represent the sun’s shape, while the green-and-blue feathers radiating out from the face symbolize light emitted by the sun. These feathers were plucked from the great blue turaco, a shy, elusive bird that spends most of its life in the treetops.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2015; Richard L. Lee, Ridgefield, Washington
Beyond Flight: Birds in African Art
Earth as Medium: Extracting Art from Nature
Cone Wing Rotations 2025
"Earth as Medium: Extracting Art from Nature" BMA Today no. 176, Winter/Spring 2025: p.8
Sousberghe, Léon de. L'art Pende. Bruxelles: Académie royale de Belgique, 1958: figs. 4-6.
Frank Herreman and Constantijn Petridis (eds). Face of the spirits : masks from the Zaire Basin.. Gent: Snoeck-Ducaju, 1993: 62-64.
Strother, Z.S. “Face mask Gitenga Kwilu Pende.” in Marc Leo Felix (ed.) Masks in Congo. Ethnic Art & Culture Ltd. Hong Kong SAR China, 2016: 132-133
Map:
Strothers Inventing Masks (page 7) for map showing the location of the town of Gungu on the Kwilu River).
Images:
Minganji masqueraders, near Gungu, Congo (Democratic Republic), Eliot Elisofon Field photograph, 1970 (EEPA EECL 4245)
Minganji masqueraders, near Gungu, Congo (Democratic Republic), Eliot Elisofon Field photograph, 1971 (EEPA EECL 4359)
Frank Herreman and Constantijn Petridis (eds). Face of the spirits : masks from the Zaire Basin.. Gent: Snoeck-Ducaju, 1993: 62-64.
Strother, Z.S. “Face mask Gitenga Kwilu Pende.” in Marc Leo Felix (ed.) Masks in Congo. Ethnic Art & Culture Ltd. Hong Kong SAR China, 2016: 132-133
Map:
Strothers Inventing Masks (page 7) for map showing the location of the town of Gungu on the Kwilu River).
Images:
Minganji masqueraders, near Gungu, Congo (Democratic Republic), Eliot Elisofon Field photograph, 1970 (EEPA EECL 4245)
Minganji masqueraders, near Gungu, Congo (Democratic Republic), Eliot Elisofon Field photograph, 1971 (EEPA EECL 4359)
