Maskette, Fang; Gabon
Wood, brass hobnails, pigment; H. 7"
This white, heart-shaped face decorated
by incised or black lines is characteristic of Gabon
masks in general and bears a stylistic continuity
with those of the Igbo, Ibibio, and Idoma peoples
of southeastern Nigeria. The heart shape alone,
formed by the eyebrows and sunken facial plane,
remains diagnostic for mask styles extending across
equatorial Africa, but particularly among the Lega
and related groups in eastern D.R.C. Congo. Such
stylistic continuities over such vast regions seem
difficult to explain but perhaps may be linked to
particular reverence paid to ancestral skulls or
to the moon in ritual practices throughout this
area. In many cases, the color white (produced by
a wash of white clay) is linked with the dead or
the spirits.
