Superb - mask - punu/lumbu - Gabon (No reserve price)

The white masks of southern Gabon have become one of the emblematic images of African art in the 19th century. The coherence of their corpus, very rich, has defied various attempts at classification, whether according to their iconographic variations or through the closely related groups (Punu, Lumbu, Shira, Sangu, Tsengi, etc.) which, even today, share their tradition. Aesthetics offers another path to their study. Beyond Western appreciation, it is based on the very essence of these masks, whose inspiration and reception arise as much from beauty as from virtuosity. This mask sits at the apex of a tradition where religious and secular notions of the sacred unite in the exaltation of beauty.