height 49 1/2in Provenance: Morton Dimondstein, Los Angeles, 1975 According to Hahner, Kecskesi and Vajda: "To ensure the fertility and welfare of their community, the Ekiti [Yoruba], who live in the eastern Yoruba area, hold a three-day masquerade festival called epa every other March. The tall masks, carved from a single piece of wood and weighing up to nearly 70 pounds, are worn by young men who prove their strength and agility in dance performances that include great leaps through the air. The base of the mask (ikoko) is formed by a grotesquely featured helmet-head, which often shows two faces but otherwise generally shows little variation. In contrast, the super-structures of such masks, set off from the helmet by a thick disk, show a great variety of scenes imaginatively rendered in the realistic Yoruba style. Among the most frequent motifs are horsemen, warriors, groups of hunters, priests, women with children [as in the present example], and leopards bringing antelope down" (2007:43).
height 49 1/2in Provenance: Morton Dimondstein, Los Angeles, 1975 According to Hahner, Kecskesi and Vajda: "To ensure the fertility and welfare of their community, the Ekiti [Yoruba], who live in the eastern Yoruba area, hold a three-day masquerade festival called epa every other March. The tall masks, carved from a single piece of wood and weighing up to nearly 70 pounds, are worn by young men who prove their strength and agility in dance performances that include great leaps through the air. The base of the mask (ikoko) is formed by a grotesquely featured helmet-head, which often shows two faces but otherwise generally shows little variation. In contrast, the super-structures of such masks, set off from the helmet by a thick disk, show a great variety of scenes imaginatively rendered in the realistic Yoruba style. Among the most frequent motifs are horsemen, warriors, groups of hunters, priests, women with children [as in the present example], and leopards bringing antelope down" (2007:43).
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
