Kete mask - Kete del Norte - North Congo

Specific features of this mask are: an elongated, pointed chin and conical eyes.
I believe that J. Cornet's classification is correct. The mask is blind,
so it was worn on the head, tilted backwards so that the wearer could see
underneath the chin. The eye sockets, reminiscent of those of some Tshokwe masks
(Mwana Pwo and Tshihongo), are painted with radial stripes and the conical eyes with
stripes from base to tip. Below the subciliary eye sockets, starting from the base of the nose,
there are three white stripes sloping downwards on each side and another on the columella that runs
from the small, circular, protruding mouth to the base of the nose. Above the hair,
starting from a circular moulding, the mask ends in a bundle of feathers. On the edge of the
hairstyle and the moulding and inside the mouth and ears there are traces of tukula. The mask
has conical decorations on the temples in front of the ears.
The mask, both in its volume and in its execution, is extraordinarily virtuosic,
and in its schematic caricature-like deformity it gives the impression of placid amazement
and dignity.

Provenance: Berthe Hartert Collection
Argiles Collection, Barcelona