Mask - Mali (No reserve price)

Stylized representation of a mythical bird that is one of the five animals of the Senoufo cosmogony. Recalled for morphological and behavioral criteria, it adorns, in its miniature version, many pieces of Senoufo African art. Fascinating to African ethnic groups for ever, the hornbill with the disproportionately large beak destroys animals considered pests. Its particular mode of reproduction also makes it a symbol of fertility. Its long beak, interpreted as the depiction of the male sexual organ, sustaining the life of the community, returns to rest on the abdomen of the animal.

Linked to the Poro society, which initiated young boys from the age of seven in a succession of three cycles each lasting seven years, this polychrome effigy of the Setien was placed in the sacred enclosure.

, the bird is standing, legs half-bent, its rectangular wings spread laterally. The sculpture is adorned with two-tone geometric motifs. One