"Punu Female Mask – Sangu Style, Gabon"
Facial mask carved in a refined style, with harmonious features: half-closed eyes, thin mouth, diamond-shaped frontal scarifications, and a typical high headdress called mukuyi. The horizontal line that crosses the face at the nose is characteristic of the Sangu style, a subgroup of the Punu, known for this graphic and symbolic peculiarity. This type of mask represents an idealized woman, both earthly beauty and ancestral spirit. Worn during dances on stilts (mukudji masks), it was used in funeral rituals or celebrations of the dead, evoking the presence of protective ancestors. White kaolin is associated with the spirit world, purity, and the passage between worlds.
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