Bundu mask
Mende Bundu mask
provenance Brooklyn-Gross collection. Price on request only.
this mask is published in the Eurantica
catalogue
Red painted nr 70. 152.3
inside
and a handwritten etiquette Dr.Gross
ht.
14 1/4 in 35 cm. photos: Sylvie Verhaeghe
Mende
Mask Not Available
African
Carved Wood Helmet Mask
Sierra Leone, Mende, of typical form with elaborate coiffure.
Provenance: Brooklyn
Museum who got it from the collection of American sculptor Chaim Gross. The
Bundu masks of the Mende is one of the seldom type of masks made by women and
used to educate women and celebrate the feminity.
Probable age: end XIXth – Begin XXth.
References from the Who’s
Who in African Art:
Gross, Chaim (1904-1991) & Renee (Renee
and Chaim Gross Foundation)
Artist/coll. New York City, born in Galicia. Sculptor, who started collecting
in the end of the thirties, his enthusiasm has influenced many others to begin
collecting. Their collection of more than a thousand objects will eventually be
bequeathed to one or more public institutions. Expo cat.: The Sculptor's Eye:
The African Art Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Chaim Gross. Washington,D.C.
1976.see also
Crowninshield, Frank (1872-1947)
Coll. New York. Editor of Vanity Fair for two decades and then advisor to
Vogue, he was an important American taste-maker. Published with Covarrubias
"Negro Drawings" in 1930s. Expo cat.: African Negro Art. From the
collection of Frank Crowninshield. Brooklyn Museum, 20 March-25 April,
1937.
His collection has been dispersed through sale to a number of private
collections and museums, with the greatest number being in the collection of
American sculptor Chaim Gross.
The Mende tribe
Location: Southern Sierra Leone
Population: 700,000
Language: Mende (Mande)
Neighboring Peoples: Bullom-Sherbro, Vai, Temne, Gola
Types of Art: Most Mende art is associated with initiation and
healing and includes wooden masks, twin figures, and medicine objects.
Utilitarian objects such as heddle pulleys are decorated with carved heads or
other beautiful designs.
History: The Mende language is closely related to the Mande language group,
indicating that the Mende migrated from the Sudan to the north. The oral
traditions of the Mende tell of a peaceful migration into the area that may have
spanned the period from 200 to 1500 A.D. Cultural and physical differences among
the Mende suggest that immigrants may have originated from more than one source.
This could also be a result of intermarriage with the peoples who had already
lived in the area. Artistic traditions link them closely to the coastal Bullom
peoples, a phenomenon which most likely resulted from the Mende borrowing ideas
they found to be useful in their own society.
Economy: The Mende are traditionally rice farmers who also produce yams and
cassava as staple crops. Cocoa, ginger, groundnuts (peanuts), and palm oil are
the primary cash crops.
Political Systems: There are two main educational societies among the Mende
which are divided by gender. They are the Poro, for men, and the Sande, for
women, and are open to anyone in the community. They have earned the misnomer
secret societies because some of their actions are hidden from the eyes of
uninitiated children and members of the opposite sex. Their existence and
purpose is known to all members of society. The primary role of both is to teach
individuals about the expectations of the community. Such organizations function
to institute community morals and act as a very efficient means of social
control.
Religion: Ngewo is the creator and ruler of the universe and is assisted by the
ancestors and other spirits (Nga-fa). Both are appealed to for protection and
fertility for the community and the individual. All manifestation of the spirit,
including the masks that are performed for religious ceremonies, are considered
Nga-fa. The masks are carved to be aesthetically pleasing to the spirits. It is
hoped that through its continual use the spirits will agree to embody the dancer
during the ceremony. Interestingly, the Bondu helmet mask, which is associated
with the Sande society and is found throughout Sierra Leone and western Liberia
among numerous ethnic groups, is the only known masking tradition in Africa
exclusively worn by women. Although women throughout Africa often act as
intermediaries between the spirit world and the earthly world, there are no
other known examples of women using masks.
Text Credits: Christopher D. Roy, Professor of the History of
Art The University of Iowa http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart
photo credits: Sylvie Verhaeghe. (click thumb to see larger)
Image before restoration - The eyes where
slightly damaged by insects. .
Painted Museum number inside the mask and the Gross
etiquette
Price:
on request
Mende
Mask SOLD
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