File:Brooklyn Museum 82.160 Mask.jpg

English: Facial portion of mask carved on a relatively flat wooden plate,squared on top and curved at bottom. Eyes are almond-shaped with narrow open slits in the center. There are three deeply carved continuous heart-shaped linesover the eyes, and one underneath. The areas between contain white and ochre pigment; the areas under each eye ochre only. The nose is in high relief- long, tapered and flared slightly at the nostrils. The mouth is a small slit with white pigment. The forehead is slightly convex. There are three diamond shaped cicatrizations on the forehead and one on each cheek. A knob in very high relief appears on either side of the eye. A raffia trim attachment outlines the face, and there is an elaborate raffia cap-like headdress. Condition: Very good. There are raffia losses on top of the headdress , but it is stable and not shedding. Pigment around the eyes is beginning to flake slightly.

English: The Lele make masks that have much in common with those of their Bushoong, Shoowa, and Ngeende neighbors of the Kuba kingdom but are much more rare. Stylistically, they are usually much flatter than those of the Kuba and are generally decorated with red and white pigments. This Lele carver made imaginative and skillful use of pigment to underline volume contrasts such as the convex, almond-shaped eyes–with multiple eyebrows stacked on top of each other to accentuate the eyes–and the pronounced relief of the nose, ears, and cicatrization marks. The masks appear principally at the funerals of chiefs and elders but are also used in annual performances that celebrate and teach the history of Lele origins and migrations. In those performances, they are associated with the founding clans of the communities, who have superior status to the members of clans that arrived later.