All BMA galleries will be closed on Saturday, Nov. 23 to prepare for the evening's BMA Ball and After Party, celebrating the Museum's 110th Anniversary. See our November gallery closures.

Exhibition Guide

This image is owned by The Baltimore Museum of Art; permission to reproduce this work of art must be granted in writing. Third party copyright may also be involved.

Gẹlẹdẹ Headdress

  • Audio

    Looking at These Wrestlers

    Read Transcript

  • Video

Art Object Info

Imagine this mask performing next to another just like it, the dancers’ ankle bells chiming in unison, as a crowd of onlookers enjoys the four wrestlers whirling above, locked in a seeming embrace. The Gẹlẹdẹ masquerade, in which masks like this one performed, is a celebration of Iya Nla, the Great Mother, but it honors all women and their capacity to give life. Strong young men dance in freshly painted pairs of masks like this one and encourage women to use their powers for the good of the community. Wrestlers are a particularly common motif, as the Gẹlẹdẹ masquerade dramatizes the struggle to do good.

 

Medium:
Wood and paint
Size:
H: 20.6'
W: 16.4'
D: 11.1'
Date:
Mid-20th Century
Gift of Alan and Janet Wurtzburger BMA 1954.32

Art Object Info

Imagine this mask performing next to another just like it, the dancers’ ankle bells chiming in unison, as a crowd of onlookers enjoys the four wrestlers whirling above, locked in a seeming embrace. The Gẹlẹdẹ masquerade, in which masks like this one performed, is a celebration of Iya Nla, the Great Mother, but it honors all women and their capacity to give life. Strong young men dance in freshly painted pairs of masks like this one and encourage women to use their powers for the good of the community. Wrestlers are a particularly common motif, as the Gẹlẹdẹ masquerade dramatizes the struggle to do good.

 

Medium:
Wood and paint
Size:
L: 11.1'
W: 16.4'
H: 20.6'
Date:
Mid-20th Century
Gift of Alan and Janet Wurtzburger BMA 1954.32