Beautiful antique Punu mask on stand

Beautiful antique Punu mask from southern Gabon

She is a fine example, with her traditional heavy lidded eyes, full lips, high-domed hairstyle and diamond-shaped scarification marks on her forehead 

Her face, decorated with white kaolin is encircled with cauri shells and coloured glass beads.

The elaborate Punu hairstyle suggests that she is wealthy as her hair has not been flattened by the need to carry goods. This extends onto a basket like dome which forms the back of her head.

Among iconic works of African art, Punu masks are amongst the most desirable.
Since the beginning of the beginning of the 20th century, collectors, dealers and artists have been fascinated by their beauty and powerful interiority.

Such masks were worn by virtuosic male performers of a stilt dance called “mukudj,” which involved them towering impressively on stilts while executing complex choreography and astonishing feats of acrobatics.

The creator of a Punu “mukudj” mask would attempt to capture the likeness of the most beautiful woman in his community.

Kaolin taken from riverbeds, which was associated with healing and with a spiritual, ancestral realm of existence, was applied to the surface of the face. By using this material, the artist both celebrated the beauty of a mortal woman and transformed her into a transcendent being.

She also happens to smell amazing!  The inside has a rich smoky wood fragrance evocative of the ceremonies at which she’d have been worn…

Head of head off stand: 17 inch
Height on stand: 23.5 inch
Width: 16 inch
Depth: 17 inch
Circumference: 32 inch

Provenance: private collection, Paris