Antelope mask ·  Côte d'Ivoire, Guro · ID: 3034331

Description

wood, matt patina, polychrome paint, crowned by a long pair of horns, bar for fixing the mask with the mouth, pierced around the rim, min. dam., small missing parts, slight traces of abrasion;
belonging to the dye-mask ensemble, whose meaning is not entirely settled until today. The animal masks (“bohi” the goat, “glo”, “zuin” and “kla” three different types of antelopes, “bolu” the hippo, “bi” the elephant, “blin” the dog and “du” the buffalo) appear at the beginning of the masquerade forming a kind of advance guard. They are said to prepare the place for dancing.

The object Antelope mask with the object ID 3034331 was last part of the auction 72nd tribal art auction at March 9, 2013 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 300 achieved a sales price of EUR 800.

You can find more Masks and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on African art.

Comparing literature

Homberger, Lorenz, Fischer, Eberhard, Die Kunst der Guro, Elfenbeinküste, Zürich 1985, p. 117