BASHILELE mask – Brown wood with polychrome pigments and copper.

KUBA LELE / BASHILELE MASK, DRC

Magnificent LELE or BASHILELE polychrome cephalomorphic mask.

Brown wood with natural polychrome pigments and hammered copper.

Early 20th century. Ex-Peter LOEBARTH collection.

Clean in style and finely sculpted, the mask has a beautiful patina of dark brown color decorated with natural pigments based on cinnabar and kaolin beautifully deposited in dotted lines.

This mask has the particularity of being equipped on the forehead, nose and mouth with fine hammered copper plates for a successful multi-material combination and a very aesthetic result.

The copper plates, perforations/scarifications attest to good ritual use and despite some visible surface abrasions, it remained in a good general state of conservation.

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The LELE tribe, also called BASHILELE, occupies the western part of the KUBA kingdom and lives mainly from hunting and agriculture. The Lélé sculptors created masks, worn during the annual foundation festivals, which were almost flat and with eyes generally surrounded by several lines. The Lélé use prestige objects influenced by the Kuba style, with the difference that the characters appearing on the masks have very long braids thanks to a support above the forehead and regular holes which allow the distinctive headdress to be attached. These very refined masks, often embellished with natural pigments, remain rare, very distinctive of their culture and very aesthetic.

Peter LOEBARTH began humanitarian missions in the DRC in the 1970s and was then a regular documentarian there. A central figure in Germany, particularly regarding LOBI art, of which he owned one of the largest collections in the world, he nourished a true passion for the African continent. Collected in situ by LOEBARTH in the DRC (formerly Zaire) in the 1970s, the mask was then passed on to his friend Dr. Wolfgang NERLICH.

Bibliography: Felix, Marc L., 100 Peoples of Zaire and their Sculpture, Brüssel 1987, p. 75, ill. 10.

Period: Early 20th century

Dimensions: H: 41 cm – L: 29cm