Beautiful female mask "gu" with animal horns · Côte d'Ivoire, Guro · ID: 3045508
Description
wood, bicolored (horns), pigments, tiny repair at the nose bridge, base
“Gu” is always carved according to the image of “a beautiful woman” - “uanya iri nya”. She is the wife of “zamble” (and his brother “zauli”).
Despite her human like face, the “gu” mask being is considered a creature of the forest. It is quite possible that the addition of horns to the beautiful female face was intended to emphasize the non-village, forest-bound, and therefore “sacred” aspect of “gu”.
A stylistically comparable mask from the Karl-Ferdinand Schadler Collection of African Art, illustrated in Fischer / Homberger 1985, Fig. 125 (AHDRC 0060625).
The object Beautiful female mask “gu” with animal horns with the object ID 3045508 was last part of the auction 91 Tribal Art Auction at March 9, 2019 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 139 achieved a sales price of EUR 8,500.
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Comparing literature
Fischer, Eberhard & Lorenz Homberger, Die Kunst der Guro, Elfenbeinküste, Zürich 1985, ill. 125