Hemba Wood Mask, Democratic Republic of Congo, On custom base

Long nose, half-closed eyes, and a broad curve for a mouth. Nothing else was needed.

This mask is Hemba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, carved of wood and set on a custom base. Hemba masks of this type are thought to blend human and chimpanzee features, and they are associated with funeral ceremonies, where they stood for the boundary between the orderly and the wild. The surface is dark and lightly pitted. A sharp ridge runs from the peak of the forehead down to a long nose with small carved nostrils. Lidded oval eyes sit close together, and a raised crescent forms the lower face. Twenty-two and a half inches high.

Whatever it is thinking, it is not sharing.