Painted blackface mask

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A painted blackface mask. The mask is constructed from two layers of cotton voile with and an internal layer of plaster cloth sandwiched in between that shapes the mask. The plaster cloth is white, the top layer is black cotton voile, and the bottom layer white cotton voile. Hood is black cotton voile. The facial features and ears of the mask are painted. The mask has large, prominent eyes that are stenciled white circles with blue irises and black pupils. There are eye holes at the center of each pupil. The eyebrows, eye wrinkles, and forehead lines are hand painted in white. There are two holes at the mask's nostrils and a semicircular opening at the mouth. The stenciled mouth is painted wide and red. The mask is bald and its ears protrude on either side. A black hood constructed from black cotton voile is attached to the back of the mask.

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