Mask "okuyi" ·  Gabon, Punu · ID: 3035707

Description

light wood, corresponding with the Punu ideals of beauty: half-closed eyes, finely arched eyelids, a narrow nose, a mouth with red lips, hairdo with central crest and flat lobes aside, characteristic whitened facial plane (extremely abraded), min. dam., cracks, small missing parts, base;
belonging to the so-called “white-faced masks from the Ogue”. These masks represented female entities from the spirit world, fantastical beings who intervened in the villages on important collective occasions: bereavements, palavers, the birth of twins, times of epidemic, hunts for malevolent sorcerers, and so on. Masked dancers standing on stilts would confront each other in “jousts”. Each dancer would be assisted by a team, whose purpose was to help him perform his competition with an acrobatic feat. The best dancer in the eyes of public would win the match.

L’objet Mask “okuyi” avec l’ID d’objet 3035707 a fait partie de l’enchère 75th tribal art auction en 30 novembre 2013 pour la dernière fois le Zemanek-Münster Hôtel des ventes et avait le numéro de lot 382.

Vous trouverez d’autres Masques et autres types d’objets populaires sur nos pages thématiques associées. Notre page sur le thème Art africain pourrait également vous intéresser.

Littérature comparée

Fagaly, William, Ancestors of Congo Square, New Orleans 2011, p. 276 ff.