DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - Lot 7

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO Songyé mask, kikashi. Polychrome wood. H.: 31 cm. Base. Shows signs of wear; traces of wood-boring insects on the left side. Provenance: Collected in the late 1950s by Ottorino Jannone, who was participating in the United Nations mission during the civil war that followed the secession of Katanga. Dandrieu-Giovagnoni Gallery, Rome, 2005. Private collection. Bibliography: Giglio P., Menin S., *Sguardi sull’arte africana*, Montelupo Fiorentino, May 1996, p. 9. Dandrieu-Giovagnoni C., *Visages cachés d’Afrique*, Paris, June 2005, p. 24. This mask belongs to the group of Kikashi female masks. Designed as a counterpart to the male Kifwebe masks—recognizable by their crest, as well as their predominantly red and black polychromy—the Kikashi masks are rarer. Associated with magic—as opposed to witchcraft—these female masks are linked, according to specialist François Neyt, “to the moon and to benevolent spirits who are reincarnated ” (The Formidable Songye Sculpture of Central Africa, 2004, p. 362).