Description: Welcome To The Premier Place For Serious Collectors of Fine Authentic African Tribal Art Over 10 Years Online Serving Thousands of Satisfied Customers Offering the Finest Quality Sub-Saharan African Art Fine African DRC Pende Tribal Mask Inches: Height: 19 Inches (Wood Part Only) Centimeters: Height: 48.5 Centimeters Measurements With Raffia: 23 Inches / 58.5 Centimeters Material: Wood, Rope, Vegetal Material Estimated Age: Early – Mid 20th Century Condition: Good Remarks: Highly stylized mask Traditional Pende features vegetal coiffure aged surface INTERNATIONAL BIDDERS WELCOME Documentation of Authenticity / Any Available Provenance Will Be Included With This Piece. CONDITIONWood deterioration, scrapes and chips, worn areas, age cracks, lost to vegetal material, overall condition good. Thank you and please view my other items. BACKGROUND The Pende people settled in the region near the Loango and Kasai Rivers. They are governed by a central authority, but pay allegiance to family chiefs, known as Djigo. The tribe members are divided into numerous territorial groups, the two most important being in Kwilu and Kasai. The Pende political system is mainly controlled by lineage and marriage. There is no recognized central political power, and the chiefs that do exist do not exercise significant authority. The extended family seems to serve the needs of social control within individual communities. The Pende are a matrilineal people, and the eldest maternal uncle in a family is usually recognized as heading the lineage, a position that entails ensuring the well-being of the family and taking care of the ancestors. The ancestors (Mvumbi) are placated through various rituals and offerings. The family head is responsible for taking care of the shrines and appeasing the spirits. The Pende recognize that spirits may be either good or bad, depending on the manner in which they died. Also, when ancestors are neglected they will cause bad things to happen to the family. The result may be sickness or hardship, both of which require a visit to the local diviner to determine the best way to appease the spirits. Blacksmiths enjoyed enormous prestige, vestiges of which are still alive today. Blacksmiths and chiefs are considered of equivalent social status. When one or the other visits a village, his arrival must be honored by a day of rest for the entire population. Even though the society is matrilineal, the sculptor’s profession is transmitted from father to son. The ancestors are honored most especially during the masked celebration held in sanctuaries in the chiefs’ huts or on the edge of the forest. A statue of the chief’s wife sometimes stands atop the roof; it symbolizes fertility and emphasizes the importance of women. Pende masks are among the most dramatic works of all African art. All told, about twenty characters and seven “masks of power” appear in ceremonies such as millet-planting celebration or circumcision and initiation ritual, and the ritual of enthronement of a chief. There are two styles: the western one of the Kwilu with its mbuya mask characterized by a somber, gloomy expression, and the Kasai style that is more geometric and colorful. The Kwilu Pende are especially well known for their masks that were originally used for circumcision ceremonies but later became accessories for a type of popular theater. Neck pendants carved by the Kwilu Pende as tiny replicas of masks must be placed among the most exquisite examples of African micro-sculpture. Generally made of ivoory, but sometimes of wood, bone, metal, these pendants serve as protective amulets. Kasai masks are decorated with red and black triangles on a sienna background. The Minganji, or masks of power, represent the ancestors; the mbuya, or village masks, represent human types, such as the chief, the diviner, the epileptic with a twisted mouth, the madman or man in a trance, the widow, the lover, or the executioner. Painter Fred Uhlman words - Most of the artists I admired, Picasso, Modigliani, Deraini, to mention only a few, had collected African art and had been profoundly influenced by it. Shortly afterwards I bought the Baule Fetish and the Baule bobbin which are still two of the finest pieces in my collection. It is easy to see why I bought them and why from that moment I have never stopped collecting. The head of the bobbin or heddle - pulley which is after all only a functional object for the purpose of weaving seemed to me then and today as beautiful as a Greek goddess. The fetish moved me as deeply as the bobbin by its silent tragic dignity and its air of profound meditation. 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Price: 360 USD
Location: Huntersville, North Carolina
End Time: 2023-11-19T05:01:51.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
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