The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Mask Collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a huge collection of masks brought from all over the world. The first ritual masks appeared more than 9 thousand years ago, but historians believe that the use of these items began much earlier. The use of masks in ancient Greece was associated with festivals dedicated to the god Dionysus. In the Himalayas, masks were considered intermediaries between the material world and supernatural forces. The peoples of Melanesia, Africa, and America used ritual masks during military raids or rites of passage. The mask experienced a new heyday in the Renaissance, when there was a fashion for balls, masquerades and carnivals.

One of the most interesting exhibits of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a Beninese ivory mask depicting Idia, the Queen Mother of the 16th-century Beninese Empire. There are several such masks: two more are kept in the British Museum and the Linden Museum in Stuttgart (Germany). They were used during ceremonies associated with the exorcism of evil spirits. Masks amaze with their variety and bizarre shapes, each of them is not just a decorative element of an outfit or interior, but a whole story.