Initiation mask "ndeemba" · D. R. Congo, Yaka · ID: 3035761
sold
EUR 1,500
Provenance
Heinz Kolerski, Fellbach near Stuttgart, GermanySize
H: 54 cm
H: 21.3 inch
Description
wood, cloth, polychrome painted, small mask face with characteristic facial features and rattan bonnet, supporting a phantastic pagoda-like superstructure with five antenna-like projections, abundant cuff of grass fibre bundles, min. dam., traces of abrasion, base;
used at circumcision rites for young boys, symbolizing fertility and virility.
Comparing literature
Bourgeois, Arthur P., Art of the Yaka and Suku, Paris 1984, p. 173 f.
Exhibition
Schmerberg, Ralf, Der Stamm der weissen Krieger, Stuttgart 1994, p. 63, ill. 29