ZOOMORPHIC MASK - Dogon Culture, Mali - Late 19th – early 20th century

ZOOMORPHIC MASK

Dogon Culture, Mali

Late 19th – early 20th century

Wood and pigments

H.: 29; L.: 13 cm

(old accident)

Face mask in monoxyle wood pierced with two squares for the eyes and hollowed out with two gutters, making the median excrescence the nasal bridge worked in notches.

It is entirely covered with white and brown ocher pigments in pellets and rings, its forehead is carved with a sawtooth frieze, its temples are flanked by two small ears and the top part once supported an openwork animal figure.

This mask specific to the society of initiates of the Awa danced on the occasion of the Dama: the funeral ceremony for the lifting of mourning which returned the deceased to his status as an ancestor.

Illustrative photograph: Marcel Griaule (1898-1956), Dakar-Djibouti Mission 1931 - 1933 © Musée du Quai Branly

Text and photos © FCP CORIDON

Ref.LP3259