"Brag" spirit mask ·  Papua New Guinea, Lower Sepik, Murik · ID: 3048028

Description

wood, pigments, missing parts, rest.

According to Craig, there are seveal kinds of masks in the Lower Sepik region which can be distinguished by the formation of their nose. A. JP Meyer already wrote, that long pointed noses represent spiritual beings while short naturalistic ones portray true ancestors.

The nose of the present mask is relatively naturalistic. It is thus probably a human ancestral mask representing a dead relative “nor” (cf. Conru, 2019, p. 237, ill. 138).

Masks with longer noses resembling eagle or kookaburra beaks may be “brag” masks. They represent the “legendary quasi-human male spirits (“pot”) with prodigious erotic appetites” (Craig in: “Sepik Ramu Art”, 2019, p. 235)

The object “Brag” spirit mask with the object ID 3048028 was part of the auction 96th Auction on April 24, 2021. The object with the lot number 37 achieved a sales price of EUR 2,400 with an asking 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 Oceanian art.

Comparing literature

Craig, Barry (ed.), Living spirits with fixed abodes, Honolulu 2010, p. 210 ff.