Tatanua Mask
Artist
Unknown
Datebefore 1900
MediumWood, paint, fiber, and other natural materials
Dimensions17 x 8 1/8 in. (43.2 x 20.6 cm)
ClassificationsTextiles
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Hanes
Object number86.9
On View
Not on viewHelmet masks were associated with memorial rites to honor ancestors and help ensure their continued benevolent intervention in the lives of members of the community. At these ceremonies, the masks were inhabited by the souls of the dead as their wearers danced to the accompaniment of a chorus and the beat of bamboo slit gongs. The design of each mask was unique in its shape; in the patterns painted in white, red, blue, and black; and in the configuration of the large fiber crest. Notice the lifelike eyes made from part of a sea snail shell.Published ReferencesIntroduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (color) 66.
Mary Ellen Soles, entry for Helmet Mask (Tatanua), in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 50, illus. (color), detail (color) 46.
Mary Ellen Soles, entry for Helmet Mask (Tatanua), in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 102, illus. (color) 103.
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