A Yoruba mask, called Oloju Foforo, meaning “the Owner of the Deep-Set Eyes,” from Osi region, northeast Yorubaland, Nigeria, the mouth with the protruding lips is wide and slightly open, a broad nose, large bulging eyes which are bordered all around, at the cheeks rectangular holes, the face is wearing an incised diamond shaped coiffure, encircled by serrated border, the mask surmounted by two kneeling female figures with angled arms, each figure is touching a breast, both figures have the same crested hairstyle, the mask pierced through at the rim for attachment; heavy hard wood, encrusted reddish and black patina, traces of age and ritual use.

According to Kevin Carroll (Sprits and Kings, - African Art from the Tishman Collection, New York, 1981, p.120), the oloju foforo mask appears only in the neighborhood of Osi, the central village of the Opin Ekiti clan in northeastern Yorubaland, where they are danced during the rites for Baba Osi, the chief orisha. For a similar mask also surmounted by two kneeling embracing females see Schaedler, K.-F., Gods Spirits Ancestors, Munich, 1993, p.119, fig. 89.

700 - 800,- Euro

Height: 46 cm
Weight: 1.2 kg