Très beau masque, Nord de la Nouvelle-Irlande

Charles Ratton, Paris
Alain de Monbrison, Paris

Wear consistent with age and use within the culture. Very good condition overall, retaining the original basketry head-dress. A small section from the rear of the head-crest broken and glued.
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Si la sculpture et l'ornementation de ce masque relèvent du style caractéristique de l'art du nord de la Nouvelle-Irlande, il pourrait cependant ne pas être lié aux traditions malangan. Le nez, en large planche ajourée, offre une composition complexe structurée par un serpent noir dont la tête semble suspendue à la base du nez. Les yeux inclinés, de même que les motifs ornant le visage, sont spécifiques à ce type de masque, au corpus restreint. Les cheveux divisés en deux parties distinctes constituent en revanche un trait commun à l'ensemble des masques de danse de Nouvelle-Irlande, destiné à provoquer un choc visuel lorsqu'en tournant, le masque change d'apparence. Selon les avancées récentes de la recherche, ce masque a pu été utilisé dans le cadre de différentes traditions culturelles soit porté dans les danses liées à la tradition kipang, soit utilisé pour lever les tabous au cours de cérémonies malangan, soit encore dans le cadre d'autres traditions.

cf. Gunn et Peltier (2007 : 252, pl. 109), pour un masque apparenté conservé à l'University Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology de Cambridge (1890.I79).

A very fine mask, northern New Ireland

This mask is carved and decorated in a distinctively northern New Ireland artistic style, but may not be related to malangan traditions. The large and intricately carved nose-plank depicts a black snake with its head hanging down from the bottom of the nose-plank. It has the slanted eyes and distinctive painted face of this type of mask, of a restrictive corpus. Its hair is also divided into two sections; this is common for New Ireland dance masks, as it gives a visual shock to the audience as the dancers change in appearance when they turn. Research in recent years suggests that this type of mask is used by a number of different cultural traditions, so it may have been worn in dances related to the kipang tradition, or used as a taboo-removing mask in malangan-related ceremonies, and may have been made for other traditions also.
cf. Gunn and Peltier (2007 : 252, Pl. 109), for a related mask at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology (1890.I79).