Reference Prof. Herbert Cole: IGBO Maiden mask, 50 cm high, wood and pigments. A quite typical white-faced maiden mask with three crests, suggesting that is was made after about 1930. Stylistically this mask is likely from the Nsukka region in Northern Igboland. The mask, of a light wood shows considerable signs of use and wear including repairs. Maiden masks are called ikorodo in this region and in the Awka/Onitsha/Anambra valley to the south and west. These masks were danced in tightly-fitting body suits of multicolored applique cloth, and only by men, who caricatured the high-stepping style of girls’ dancing. Masked dancers honoured marriageable girls and remote ancestors. White chalky color is a reference to pretty, pure, virginal young girls and symbolizes the presence of ancestors and the ‘incarnate dead’, who return to the human community to entertain and to be honoured by the living. The apparent contradiction is not problematic for the Igbo, whose masks are often ambiguous and ambivalent - this is part of the puzzle that masking often presents in African life. This mask is typical of this genre in the three semi-circular crests worn by young women. In fact hairstyles were never as complex and dramatic as these crests are, and seldom if ever had open spaces as seen on this and other masks of this type. These masks became exercises in carving virtuosity as artists competed to see who could create the most elaborate mask. No two are alike. See Cole and Aniakor 1984: 120–129 and Cole 2012: 226–233, for more information about these maiden masks.

Biblio:
see Cole and Aniakor 1984: 117–128, Cole 2012: 227–233.

Provenance:
Austrian private collection.(VJ)