dance-mask
- Museum number
- Af1956,27.2
- Description
-
Wood and vegetable fibre dance-mask, with horns and head-covering.
- Dimensions
-
Height: 68 centimetres
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Width: 28 centimetres
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Depth: 26.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Description from William Fagg, ‘The Webster Plass collection of African Art, an illustrated catalogue’, British Museum 1953, cat.2.
Wooden Dogon dance mask with rectilinear features surmounted by two horns in the form of elongated triangles, the face painted with red, black and white geometrical designs. Behind is attached a string net-head covering, and over this a short cape made of alternate braids of black and natural-coloured fibre; used in expiatory ceremonies for the tribal ancestors. This mask, which was collected by the Mission Griaule in 1931, is called ‘walu’, the antelope, and is fully treated by Marcel Griaule, ‘Masques Dogon’, Paris 1938, pp.444-9; a duplicate piece is reproduced in Marcel Griaule, Arts de l’Afrique Noire’, Paris 1947, p.35.
Provenance: Musée de l’Homme, Paris
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1956
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1956,27.2
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: Af1973Q1.978
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Miscellaneous number: Af1979A1.310