Mask "tundu" · R. D. Congo, Pende · ID: 3034536
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Provenance
Georges Frederick Keller, Paris, France (ca. 1950)Paolo Morigi, Magliaso, Switzerland
Sothey’s Paris, 6 Juin 2005, lot 150
Description
wood, blackish brown patina, kaolin, striking forehead grooves, a bonnet made from plant fibres at the back, beard and coiffure made from animal hair, collection number “G.F.K. 266”, rep. (mouth backside), slight traces of abrasion, socle;
“tundu”, the male clown and its female counterpart “gandumbu” were not originally worked in wood. The oldest villagers remember when both wore sacks of raffia pulled over the head, with crude holes for the eyes. The initial suggestion for a wooden-faced “tundu” came from a Belgian.
Littérature comparée
Strother, Z.S., Inventing masks, Chicago 1998, p. 127 f.