This mask type from the Punu, called ‘okuyi’ or ‘mukudji’, represents a ‘beautiful girl’ coming to the living from the afterlife to pay a benevolent visit. The ‘Okuyi masks’ are worn by men in full body costumes who stand on 2 metre high stilts during ceremonies, feasts and at markets. ‘Okuyi masks’ were carved from lightweight, light-coloured wood. The face with the typical ‘Asian’ seeming slit eyes was coloured in white by means of kaolin. The hairstyle – two crests with a braid on the left and right – as well as the wide rim of the mask and the offset ‘handle’ under the chin were originally dyed black. The customary tribal scarification marks, formed from a nine-part diamond on the forehead and nine-part rectangles on both temples, as well as the two lines between the forehead and the hairstyle are typically painted red. This is a very old example of a Punu ‘Okuyi mask’ with some age-related damage: some small breakages (right ear, both ends of the braids, on the mouth and nose as well as the hairstyle and on the back rim). There is colour abrasion all over and noticeable remains of an old usage patina (especially on the inside at the back). Height: 32 cm; width: 18 cm. Between c. 1900 and the first third of the 20th century. (ME)

Provenance:
French private collection.

Lit.:
‘Punu’ by Louis Perrois & Charlotte Grand-Dufay, ill. 13–18; 'Encyclopdia of African Art and Culture' by K.-F. Schädler, ill. p. 516; 'Ancestral Art of Gabon' by Louis Perrois, ill. 23.