Hyena or cheetah mask · Mali, Dogon · ID: 3045299
Description
wood, black, red and white pigment, collection number “G197”, base
For the “dama”, or final commemorative ceremony for important Dogon elders, hundreds of masked dancers perform, creating a brilliantly colored, ever-changing spectacle of scupture, costume, song and dance.
During his research in the 1930’s Marcel Griaule documented more than seventy different mask types, representing animals, birds, human characters, and abstract concepts, which he considered to be a visual summary of the world surrounding the Dogon.
The function of the masks is to release the spirit “nyama” of the deceased from the world of the living, the village environment, and to set the “nyama” on its course to the world of the ancestors.
The object Hyena or cheetah mask with the object ID 3045299 was last part of the auction 91 Tribal Art Auction at March 9, 2019 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 107.
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.
Comparing literature
Bilot, Alain, Masques du pays Dogon, Paris 2001, p. 105, ill. 42
Publications
Imperato, Pascal James, Dogon Cliff Dwellers, New York 1978, p. 37, ill. 15