Mask Pende - DR Congo (No reserve price)

Magnificent Pende mask from Congo

With traces of repair on the face.

This African initiation mask, Mbuya, comes from the Western Pende whose Yaka influence is notable in the nose. , this mask expresses the masculine and feminine qualities of the chief. This mask is stylistically very close to the Pumbu, (Pende, Strother) The Pumbu mask embodies, in turn, to protect itself from the vengeance of its quarry, the spirit of a hunter of big game, and the executioner who deliberately shed human blood, Ngunza. For the central Pende, his Pundu mask is moreover very different in its formal aspect. This African mask Pendé Fumu sports a chin strap in raffia cloth, while the woven fabric, fixed to the back of the piece, was intended to conceal the wearer’s nape. The Western Pende live on the banks of the Kwilu, while the Eastern have settled on the banks of the Kasai downstream from Tshikapa. The influences of neighboring ethnic groups, Mbla, Suku, Wongo, Leele, Kuba and Salempasu, have imprinted themselves on their broad sculpture of tribal art. Within this diversity the realistic Mbuya masks, produced every ten years, perform a festive function and embody different characters, including the fumu or ufumu chief, the diviner and his wife, the prostitute, the clown, tundu, the possessed, etc. The initiation Mbuya masks linked to the mukanda initiation and those of power, the minganji, represent the ancestors and are produced successively during the same ceremonies, agricultural festivals, initiation rites and mukanda circumcision, the enthronement of the chief.