Anthropomorphic helmet mask · Cameroon Grassfields, Fontem Valley, Bamileke / Bangwa · ID: 3048150
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 14 November 1980, Lot 200
Description
wood, pigments, handwritten collection numbers “66.74” & “1978.412.528” (MET), base
Bamileke masks differ from those of the other Grassland regions in their distinctly individual and expressive character.
The face is unusually flat. The sharply defined eye sockets and the centrally indented facial contour with a pointed chin give the face a bony, almost emaciated expression.
In combination with the open, teeth-revealing mouth, the mask has a rather frightening expression. It is therefore conceivable that it was used by a special society in the fight against witchcraft.
Fear of witchcraft was deep-seated and to practice witchcraft was a severe infraction of the social norm punishable by social alienation, or in repeated instances by death.
Publications
AHDRC: 0011737
Exhibition
New York, Museum of Primitive Art, "exhibition 47"; New York, P.S.33, "Masks", 20 October-10 November 1967