Wango society, Burkina Faso. Wood, polychrome, 112 cm high. The mask shows a woman, on a stylized anthropomorphic mask, at the height of her strength and beauty, her body adorned with scarifications applied after her first child. This master carver has created a wonderful contrast between the concentric circles and geometric décor of the lower mask and the elongated grace of the female figure, connecting the wings and horns of the anthropomorphic mask below to the woman's helmet like coiffure and the angular planes of the hands and fingers. The Karen-Wemba masks take a special place in the Mossi pantheon. The mask honors a woman whose great age, wisdom, and experience elevated her to the rank of a living ancestress, an ideal intermediary between the living and the spirits of the family's ancestors. (VJ)

Provenance:
Franco Monti, Milan;
Joaquin Pecci, Brussels;

Published:
Monti (Franco), "Le maschere africane", Milano 1966;
Monti (Franco), "African Masks", London: Hamlyn, 1969:29, #11.

Cf. Of this mastercarver about 7 or 8 other masks are known, some examples are: Sothebys New York 1983 AHDRC 006923;
Rietberg Museum, Leuzinger "Afrique' Paris 1962:81, Pl.9;
Pierre Vérité, Christie' Paris, June 2013;
Bacquart "Tribal Arts of Africa", London 1998:69, #14.