Masque Marka - Mali (No reserve price)
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Masque Marka, a Mali-origin ritual facial mask of the Marka/Bambara culture, measuring 24.5 cm high by 16 cm deep and dating to the late 20th century, in good condition, sold without a stand.
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Description from the seller
RITUAL FACIAL MASK - BAMARA / MARKA - MALI
The Marka are an ethnicity very close to the Bambara, whose art is characterized in particular by their masks covered with brass plates, like this one.
Among the Marka, Do is the spirit to whom the masks give form and express it.
Do originates in the bush through the leaf masks and, in some mythical cases, through fiber masks and heads carved in wood.
In the religious system of Marka society, Do is the most invoked and its cult the most elaborate.
The Marka are organized into structured and hierarchical mask-societies.
There exists an initiatory language—an established means of communication in the hands of initiates.
Marka masks, according to C. Roy, are a synthesis of stylistic components of related Mande peoples in Mali, and of their neighbors in Burkina Faso.
Of the Mande, they have kept the oval face with flat cheeks, and the "T" formed by the intersection of the nose and the brow arches.
To their neighbors, the Marka borrowed geometric motifs including triangles, chevrons, checkered patterns, and concentric circles to materialize the eyes.
The Marka possess other zoomorphic masks similar to those of their Nuna and Bwaba neighbors.
Texts excerpted from this excellent page
RITUAL FACIAL MASK - BAMARA / MARKA - MALI
The Marka are an ethnicity very close to the Bambara, whose art is characterized in particular by their masks covered with brass plates, like this one.
Among the Marka, Do is the spirit to whom the masks give form and express it.
Do originates in the bush through the leaf masks and, in some mythical cases, through fiber masks and heads carved in wood.
In the religious system of Marka society, Do is the most invoked and its cult the most elaborate.
The Marka are organized into structured and hierarchical mask-societies.
There exists an initiatory language—an established means of communication in the hands of initiates.
Marka masks, according to C. Roy, are a synthesis of stylistic components of related Mande peoples in Mali, and of their neighbors in Burkina Faso.
Of the Mande, they have kept the oval face with flat cheeks, and the "T" formed by the intersection of the nose and the brow arches.
To their neighbors, the Marka borrowed geometric motifs including triangles, chevrons, checkered patterns, and concentric circles to materialize the eyes.
The Marka possess other zoomorphic masks similar to those of their Nuna and Bwaba neighbors.
Texts excerpted from this excellent page
Details
Country of Origin
Mali
Period
Late 20th century
Sold with stand
No
Condition
Good condition
Title of artwork
Masque Marka
Height
24.5 cm
Depth
16 cm
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