"Yaouré Mask, Ivory Coast, 20th Century"
Anthropomorphic wooden mask with a dark patina, enhanced with copper strips and upholstery nailsYaouré ethnic group, Ivory Coast, 20th century
Ht. 37cm Ht. with base 48cm
- 240€ -
The Yaouré (Yowlè, Yaure, Yohouré) are an ethnic group from central Ivory Coast.
Living geographically between the Gouro and Baoulé peoples, they are also very close to these two neighbors in their art, and more particularly the morphology and the attention to detail given to the modeling of their masks.
The characteristics of Yaouré masks are an elongated face, a protruding mouth, semi-circular eyes and a high forehead. Their three-part hairstyle is either with the central part surmounted by a totem animal or, as here, a comb-shaped motif. The edge of the mask is also very often decorated with a crenellated motif, like a beard.
The masks of this ethnic group are divided into two groups that are difficult to differentiate. The "je" with, sometimes, additions of colored pigments, and the "lo", usually with a dark patina, which officiate at the time of funerals, or on the occasion of any other rite, to conciliate the favors of the "YU" spirits.
http://www.quai-favieres-antiquites.com/
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