Beautiful female mask "gu" with animal horns

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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).

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Comparing literature

Fischer, Eberhard & Lorenz Homberger, Die Kunst der Guro, Elfenbeinküste, Zürich 1985, ill. 125

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