A Karan-wemba mask, Mossi nyonyosé, region de Kaya, village Boulsa, Burkina Faso, of stylized, hollowed oval form, a flat concave face with a vertical, jagged central ridge and triangular pierced eyes, surrounded by a carved jagged line along the rim, surmounted by a typical female figure of the Mossi representing a female ancestor (tribe or clan mother), the figure has slightly bent legs ending up in a prominent buttock, a slender torso with a pointed navel, arms carved close to the body, large hands, hanging, tapering breasts, rounded shoulders, slightly emphasized shoulder blades, displays typical tribal scarification marks on the face and the body, wears colourful beads around neck and waist, capped by a three-parted coiffure, the mask pierced through at the rim for attachment; carved from a single piece, shiny brown to blackened patina, traces of use and age, cracks, incl. stand.

"A mask of this type honors an elderly woman in the community who has achieved the rank of a living ancestress. This is a woman who has married, had children and grandchildren, and whose husband has passed away. She has fulfilled her role as an ideal wife and mother, and is free to return to home where she was born and which she left as a young woman. When she dies, masks such as these appear at her funeral celebration."

Lit.: Christopher D. Roy/Thomas G.B. Wheelock: Land of the Flying Masks. Art and Culture in Burkina Faso. The Thomas G. B. Wheelock Collection, Prestel 2007, p. 61.

800 - 1000, - Euro

Height: 103 cm
Weight: 2,5 kg