Masque facial anthropomorphe "mfon ekpo"
Nigéria, Ibibio-Anang
Vendu
1 500 €
Provenance
Rolf Kunitsch, Münster, GermanyZemanek-Münster, Würzburg, 12 May 2001, Lot 344
Werner Zintl, Worms, Germany
Taille
H: 26 cm
H: 10.2 inch
Description
wood, base
Appearances by the “ekpo” masks are regarded as visits by the ancestral spirits (“ekpo”) represented by the masks.
This mask shows a realistic depiction of a beautiful female face. It is the embodiment of a “beautiful spirit” - “mfon”, which is primarily used for entertainment.
“Ekpo” masks show a contrastive aesthetic of beauty and ugliness. Artists use asymmetry and disproportion in their mask-making to recreate and comment upon the incongruities and contradictions of human existance, while symmetry and elegance convey ideas about morality and essential goodness.