Ngbaka mask SOLD
Some Pieces I sold to African Art collectors, museums and dealers around the world. Visit our home page at Buy African Antiques for available items.
| visit Buy
African antiques genuine African Art available ! |
A
FINE NGBAKA MASK Provenance: My mother's collection. Price: sold |
DESCRIPTION
of oval form and small proportions, the elliptical mouth beneath the straight nose with
horizontal lines leading to the forehead and bisecting the oval eyes with
eybrows incised two parallel dot lines; fine, slightly glossy medium to dark brown
and white Kaolin patina.
NOTES
Two colored masks are often associated with mental illness.
The Ngbaka live on a grassy plateau in northwestern Democratic Republic of the
Congo, southeast of the Ubangi River. They are farmers who migrated into this area from near lake
Chad, to the Northwest, according to Felix (1987: 120). Ngbaka figurative art is characterized by the greatest simplicity of
form, where the essential elements are reduced to a concave facial plane bi-sected by a ridged section which terminates in the
nose. Cf. Herremann and Petridis (1993: 227) for a closely related mask and CID (1950: figure 56) for a female
figure.
Petridis (in Herreman and Petridis 1993: 224) notes that 'the ethnic situation of the Ubangi area is extremely complex. The many
migrations, mutual contacts and interactions, have resulted in certain traits becoming shared among the various groups who inhabit this
region.' The Ubangi masks (which include the Ngbaka) include a wide variety of
forms, so it is difficult to say specifically where a mask originated. However,
'...it is beyond dispute that the Ngbaka have used masks within the scope of the initiation and circumcision
rituals, called gaza. Some sources speak of a dagara mask worn by the man who is charged with with the instruction and circumcision of the
initiates, during the festival which follows the young men's period of
seclusion. Other sources relate that the initiates themselves wear a moginda to amuse
themselves, as well as to scare the girls during the initiates' exodus from their place of
seclusion. Finally, the 'discipline master' would also be adorned with a mask inside the enclosure where the initiation itself takes place.'
Price: sold
Description based on unsold lot 85 from May '05 Sotheby's
+32
3 227.35.40, 