Anthropomorphic face mask ·  D. R. Congo, Bakongo-Yombe · ID: 3048823

Description

wood, cracks

This mask features particularly large, semi-circular cut-out eye openings. A striking detail is the small tongue.

A comparable mask in this respect is classified by Lehuard (Arnouville 1993, p. 790, 5.4.2.1) as “nganga diphomba,” a mask type associated with diviners. In this case, the present mask originally must have been painted with colored pigments (red, white and black) and must have had a whitened eye zone, a characteristic of this mask type, which was supposed to give clairvoyance to its wearer.

The object Anthropomorphic face mask with the object ID 3048823 was last part of the auction 98th Auction at March 26, 2022 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 250 achieved a sales price of EUR 1,500.

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

Lehuard, Raoul, Art Bakongo, Les Masques, Arnouville 1993, p. 790, 5.4.2.1 Felix, Marc L. (ed.), Kongo Kingdom Art, China 2003, p. 222