Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

2022.58.2

Mask; Mestizo Man

2022.58.2

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Mask; Mestizo Man
Long description
Mask of a 'Mestizo Man'. The mask is carved from wood, and features no fastening. It has been painted - mostly pink with areas of red brushed onto the cheeks, nose, forehead, temples, and chin. The lips and nostrils of the face have also been painted red, and the teeth white. Black paint has been used to indicate wrinkles, a moustache, eyebrows, and the eyes, while the irises are painted bright blue. The painted eyes are set beneath the eye-holes of the mask. Six sculpted elements which resemble COVID-19 cells have been attached to the face, and are painted in black, white, red, green, and yellow. The mask has been varnished.
Geographical reference
Mexico (Place of Origin)
Latin America and the Caribbean > Central America > Mexico (Place of Origin)
Cultural groups
Nahua
Date
Acquisition information
Purchased: 06/2022
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Material Acrylic Paint Synthetic, Material Varnish, Material Glue, Process Carved, Process Painted, Process Varnished, Process Glued
Dimensions
Length x Width x Depth 250 x 190 x 120 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 2022.58.2
Research and responses

This collection of masks features in ICME news December 2020, To Portray the Virus, p.10-13. The mask is described in the articles as follows: 'Since the first months of 2020, indigenous communities have been isolated, not only because they have serious shortages of doctors and hospitals, but also because in their imaginary, epidemics always come from the world of the white people and the mestizos. In this mask, we can appreciate how a white man is carrying the epidemic. Mask designed by the Nahua artisan Zeferino Balthasar Basilio, San Francisco Ozomatlàn, Guerrero, Mexico.'

Associated publications
NPR News, Mexican Masks Portray COVID As A Tiger, A Devil, A Blue-Eyed Man, Main author: Cathy Newman, 2021 ICME News, To Portray the Virus, Main author: Carlos Arturo Hernández Dávila; Translator: Blanca María Cárdenas Carrión, 2020

Search terms: Mask

Further items to explore