Details

LOT 2351

African Wooden Ceremonial Face Mask

PENDE TRIBE, EARLY-MID 20TH CENTURY A.D.

14 3/4 in. (560 grams, 37.5 cm).

Carved with scarification panels to the cheeks and forehead, protruding mouth with teeth, flat nose and a neck panel below the chin. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa.
From the collection of the late Professor R M Hicks, OBE.
From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.

Footnotes

Pende masks are among the most dramatic works of all African art. There are two styles: the western one of the Kwilu with its mbuya mask characterized by a somber, gloomy expression, and the Kasai style that is more geometric and colorful. The Kwilu Pende are especially well known for their masks that were originally used for circumcision ceremonies but later became accessories for a type of popular theater. The minganji, or masks of power, represent the ancestors; the mbuya, or village masks, represent human types, such as the chief, the diviner, the epileptic with a twisted mouth, the madman or man in a trance, the widow, the lover, or the executioner.