jtw1313
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- Feb 5, 2013
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Can anyone help with information on this mask? Very light wood
It is a snake I believe
So many countries have masks, Asia, North, Central and South America, Europe etc. One would need to nail down images on the mask, maybe determine the type of wood, etc to help nail down a region.
So many countries have masks, Asia, North, Central and South America, Europe etc. One would need to nail down images on the mask, maybe determine the type of wood, etc to help nail down a region.
Agree!
This only a guess.
I didnāt recognise it as anything from Africa. I could believe parts of Asia, and certainly Indonesia but didnāt recognise it as anything traditional. What I thought at first might be an elephantine trunk is, Iām pretty sure, meant to be snake-like and I talked myself into believing those black decorations at the very end resemble the rattle of a rattkesnake. If thatās the case, it could only be from the Americas since rattlesnakes arenāt native to anywhere else. I believe it may be a Mexican dance/carnival mask.
Dance/carnival masks can have such a diverse set of possibilities that you may never find an exact match but in Mexico one popular character is āEl Feoā (the āugly oneā). The feos acted as 'jesters' within the dance group to provide comic relief for the audience and wore hideous masks, sometimes with an absurdly elongated nose like this:
View attachment 1946046
Sometimes the phallic nose is represented as a snake, like this one which has eyes and mouth at the end:
View attachment 1946047
The pictures are from Bryan Stevens on the āmexicandancemasks.comā website and are of masks from Paso Ancho in Mexico.