Kpeliyé'e Face Mask - Senufo Culture, Ivory Coast

Kpeliyé'e facial MASK 
Senoufo culture, Ivory Coast 
Copper alloy
H. 26 cm, length 13.5 cm

This face has a tapering oval shape and is meticulously embellished with applied details: double rings around the rectangular, openwork eyes, geometric scarification marks at the corners of the mouth (which are themselves incised), geometrically decorated friezes on the forehead and on either side of the particularly fine bridge of the nose, a repeat of the double on the two pairs of geometrically cut wings on the temples and cheeks - all of which can be associated with the idea of an avian figure. The upper part is punctuated by a pair of horns reminiscent of a ram and centred by an ex-growth in the shape of a tongue, entirely decorated with ribboned thread. The mask rests on two stylised legs decorated in a row.

This mask refers to the eponymous masks danced during the Poro initiation ritual.

No. B4 from the ‘BRONZES, MINIATURES MONUMENTALES’ exhibition, part two