Anthropomorphic mask - Ngbaka - DR Congo

Anthropomorphic mask – Ngbaka – Democratic Republic of the Congo

Origin: Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa), Ubangi region
Culture / Ethnicity: Ngbaka
Material: Carved wood, dark patina
Support: Work provided with its presentation base, custom-made.

- An exclusive, richly illustrated catalog accompanies the Wirtz Collection, with a detailed note devoted to each of the works presented. (available on request)

- Unpublished: Dated and signed composition, entitled After the Wirtz Collection, offering a pictorial evocation of the interior of the collection as it might have been represented in 1965.

Provenance

Former private collection of a member of the Wirtz family, Antwerp (Belgium), a family historically active in the travel sector.

According to information provided directly by her heir, this object was brought back from Congo in the 1960s, then kept within the family.

The family collection was carefully preserved and displayed in a room entirely dedicated, arranged in the spirit of a private cabinet of curiosities, where the works were gathered and highlighted in an environment specially devoted to their presentation.

Acquired directly from the heir, with whom this sale is conducted in collaboration.

Description & Study of the Work

Anthropomorphic facial mask attributed to the Ngbaka, a people established in the Ubangi region, in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The collections of the National Museum of African Art document the use of Ngbaka masks in initiation and circumcision rites, during which young men were temporarily kept away from the village.

This exemplar is distinguished by remarkable sobriety and by the depth of its dark patina. The face, oval and slightly elongated, is constructed with great economy of means: a convex forehead, eyes reduced to thin horizontal openings, a long straight nose and a discreetly parted mouth.

The treatment of the gaze is particularly striking. The heavy, almost closed eyelids give the mask a calm, restrained, and deeply interiorized expression. On either side, the lateral volumes that frame the eyes further accentuate the power of the upper part of the face.

The nose constitutes the main axis of the composition. Very elongated and prominently projected, it is traversed by fine incised vertical lines that extend toward the forehead and introduce a subtle rhythm into a sculpture otherwise very spare.

The mouth, simply drawn by two thick lips and a narrow opening, brings an astonishing softness to the whole. No detail is superfluous: every volume seems to have been reduced to its essential expression.

The patina brown-black, deep and irregular, is one of the major attractions of the piece. The numerous marks, small abrasions, and surface variations reveal the lighter wood tone in places, giving the mask a particularly living material.

Viewed from three-quarters, the modeling takes on its full dimension: the curvature of the forehead, the projection of the nose, and the drawing of the lips create real sculptural depth, while the frontal view preserves an almost meditative expression.

A work of great quiet strength, whose sobriety, the quality of the modeling, and the beautiful dark patina produce a presence that is at once austere, human, and profoundly enigmatic.