Mussi-Dogon Mask with full family superstructure and front horns, mounted on metal plate and spike
Lately , a unique sculpture arrived to our gallery.
It is an extremely rare item from the Mussi-Dogon tribe bought by an American collector in 1962. It is a sculpture / mask (Ritual Mask) created in the early 1920s in Mali in a village near Duenza.
The mask / statue rises to a height of six feet and is made up of a typical mask at the bottom of the statue and above it is a full-figured woman figure that includes a face, an elongated body, and two arms descending stiffly at the sides of the body.
From the front of the mask are two split horns that reach the upper body of the woman’s figure.
It is a sculpture carved as a special separate unit without copies.
The carved statue was hardened by a controlled fire and then painted in white and red stripes painted warp and weft throughout.
The mask itself was designed so that it could be worn on the face during the ceremony.
The sculpture / mask was displayed in the late 1960s at the N.C. Museum. In North Carolina and is currently on display in our gallery.