Beautiful portrait mask "ndoma" ·  Côte d'Ivoire, Baule · ID: 3046591

Description

wood, eyes with inlay, kaolin, base

“Ndoma” masks appear during “mblo” dances, which are performed in times of crisis. They are supposed to allay the fears of the villagers and serve as entertainment. "

“Ndoma” can be roughly translated as “namesake”. The masks usually bear the name of the person represented and during performances, that person is required to be present when her mask appears.

Most portrait masks can be recognized by their facial features, their hairstyles, and their scarifications as depictions of known men and women.

The object Beautiful portrait mask “ndoma” with the object ID 3046591 was last part of the auction 94th Tribal Art Auction at March 7, 2020 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 227 achieved a sales price of EUR 4,800.

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.