The mask depicts a ‘beautiful girl’, that benignly visits mankind from the afterlife. These ‘agbogho mmwo’ masks are used in dances by young men in tight, colourful costumes during harvest festivals and at ceremonies in honour of ancestors, women and the earth gods.
The present ‘agbogho mmwo’ shows the ‘classical’ canon of forms of these masks: carved of one piece of wood, with a narrow, long face, small, slit, and framed eyes, long, narrow nose and an open mouth with two rows of teeth. In the middle of the forehead and around both ears run continuous lines of scarification marks, coloured red like the ears and lips. The eyebrows, rims of the eyes, nostrils and teeth are black. The face is coloured in white with kaolin. Discoloured in patches due to age-related, numerous applications of kaolin. In African art, faces coloured in white with kaolin often signify that this mask creature is actually ‘dead’ – a forefather or ancestor, as it were – and only now is ‘visiting from the afterlife’. Above its white face, from the hairstyle upwards, this ‘beautiful girl’ is coloured black and brown, with white, red and blue accents. As are also the concentric circular forms shaping the coiffure, and the small, white, red and blue-coloured projections which are located outside on the tall, wheel-shaped, openwork central crest on the top of the head. At left and right, next to the central crest, the helmet mask wears two decorative crests, carved out from the same piece and in decorative relief on the outside, stuck into the hairstyle. All is carved from a single piece. Overall a clear, simple example of the ‘agbogho mmwo’ mask type of the Ibo. With only minor, age-related damage: colour scuffing to the face, a minimal, old break to the side of the central crest and the lower edge at the back, as well as a small, old crack on the rear with original repair (glued and painted over in blue). In contrast, good traces of use, e.g. on the holes for attaching the mask costume (two of them broken), a slightly sandy, crusty patina, and chipped edges on the hairstyle and the upper crests, as well as good usage patina on the red-coloured interior of the helmet mask.
Height: c. 60 cm; width: c. 24 cm. First half to mid-20th century. (ME)

Provenance: Hungarian private collection.

Lit.: ‘Igbo Arts. Community and Cosmos’ by Herbert M. Cole & Chike C, Aniakor, ill. 224, 226, 227, 232