This mask type, called 'Okuyi' or 'Mukudji', represents a 'beautiful girl' coming to the living from the afterlife. These ‘Okuyi masks’ are mostly made of lightweight, light-coloured wood. They are worn by dancers on high stilts (!) during ceremonies, feasts and at markets. The present, old 'Okuyi mask' represents the 'classic' type: made of light-coloured, lightweight wood, dyed white, black and red. The face is coloured in white with kaolin. The colour white often symbolises death in African masks (cf also the 'Mmwo masks' of the Ibo et al.). The hair consists of two combs in the upper section and two plaits left and right. It is dyed black, as are also the scarification marks on the forehead and to the temples consisting of nine rhombs each. With high eyebrow arches and typical, fine slit eyes, reminiscent of Japanese No masks. The ears as well as the smiling mouth of the mask are dyed red. An old piece with good usage patina on the outside as well as on the inside, and with minor age damage: original repair on the right eye (inside), colour scuffed, a small hole in the upper section (reverse) and some pieces broken off on the back rim. Second half of the 19th century; H: 30 cm. (ME)

Provenance according to consigner: From the collection of Louis Petit (1856-1943). Louis Petit was a French hunter, taxidermist ornithologist, researcher and collector, who explored Senegal, Congo and Gabon over the course of numerous journeys between 1873 and 1883. The greatest part of his collection is currently preserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen. The present Punu mask is the result of an exchange that took place before the ‘Louis Petit Collection’ was donated to the museum. Currently in a Belgian collection.

Literature: 'Ancestral Art of Gabon' by Louis Perrois, ill. 23.