Art School | Explore Peru: Masks Inspired by the Inca Empire

by Deborah Harju, posted on April 30th, 2014 in Art School

Peru is such a culturally rich and beautiful country in South America. We have been exploring this land with my fourth grader’s class and I am learning so much I never knew! I’d love to share a little bit about the country of Peru with you all to set the scene for our art lesson today.

Peru is the home to many, MANY sites where the Inca people lived. I encourage you to do a little exploring at your local library or online to see the beautiful structures the Incas built. Machu Picchu, in the photo above, is described as the most beautiful and impressive ancient Inca ruin in the world! It’s also described as the “Lost City of the Incas.” Another site, Coricancha, was the most important temple in the Inca Empire. Gold is very abundant in Peru, and the walls and floors of this temple were covered in sheets of solid gold! Can you imagine how striking that must have been to see?! Take a look at these gold masks below.

Since gold continues to be one of Peru’s main exports it makes sense that it was an integral part of their arts and worship. Today we are going to create a gold mask inspired by these masks of the Inca Empire. You will need paper or cardboard for the mask, gold paint (acrylic or spray paint is fine), blue paper or foam board and construction paper and glue.

Paint your mask gold and then let it dry. I found these pre-cut masks at a craft supply store and they’ve come in handy often with our lessons.

Next you can add decorations like our inspiration masks. I had these little blue foam pieces and gray construction paper that Sawyer layered with white glue. But feel free to paint some buttons, add glitter, whatever you would like to add to embellish your mask. Feel free to even add some designs with a pen or marker.