A beautiful vaa or vaa-bong (generic term) helmet mask, unle - Lot 150

A beautiful vaa or vaa-bong (generic term) helmet mask, unless it's a vakono monkey mask used to hunt field animals. Slender in shape, this fine specimen of a horizontal helmet mask wore a large garment of plant fibers that completely covered the dancer. Here, its large eyes and open mouth give it a particularly lively appearance, and it still wears the bamboo nose ornament classic of the ancient masks in this corpus. According to Rubin, horizontal vaa or va-boong masks create a link between the world of the living and the dead and are the figurative representation of male spirits. They could appear at various events, funerary or linked to agrarian rites, and beyond their generic name he listed individual mask names such as "Casse-pied", "Rat", "Bouc", "Courageous" or "Feux". See Herreman-Petridis, Mumuyé Sculptures du Nigéria, Milan, 2016 Mumuye, Nigeria Wood and bamboo labret, old cracks and erosion, beautiful patina of use. L.: 41cm Provenance: Jean-Michel Huguenin, Paris Robert Saintgery Collection, Paris Transmitted by descent