Janusfaced helmet mask with figural superstructure · Nigeria, Ibibio/Anyang · ID: 3035668
Description
wood, painted in black, red and white (strongly darkened), nearly identical formed faces, each with a mixture of carved and painted tattoos, crowned by board-shaped projections with mirror glass inlay and four separate carved figures, two of them in colon style, slightly dam. (hand of one of the colon figures, arm of a female), missing parts (one arm of both of the female figures), cracks, rep. (breakage on one side of the head), rep. (nail at the lower rim);
the Anyang use similar masks and dance crests like most of the Cross River peoples, yet their ritual objects show more naturalistic features and only rarely do they cover them with hide.The Anyang are a small ethnic group in the Western part of the Cameroon Grassfields, to the east of the Boki, on the northern shores of the Cross River.
Comparing literature
Wittmer, Marcilene K. & William Arnett, Three Rivers of Nigeria, Atlanta 1978, p. 77, ill. 181 Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Encyclopedia of African Art and Culture, Munich 2009, p. 36 f.
Publications
Eisenhofer, Stefan (Hg.), Kulte, Künstler, Könige in Afrika, Linz 1997, p. 321, ill. III/13.2Exhibition
"Kulte, Künstler, Könige in Afrika, Tradition und Moderne in Süd-Nigeria", Schlossmuseum Linz, Austria, 3. Oktober 1997-5. April 1998