Dogon Mask
DOGON ARTIST
Mask, dannana
Mali
Late 19th-early 20th century
Wood, pigment
Height: 19 ½ inches (49.5 cm)
Provenance:
Ex collection Franco Monti (1931-2008), Milan, Italy
Ex private collection, Belgium
Ex Pace African & Oceanic Art, New York
Published:
Monti, Franco. Le Maschere africane. Milano: Fratelli Fabbri Editori, 1966
Monti, Franco. African Masks. London: Hamlyn, 1969. p. 10, #1
Sold
The dannana is one of the masks used in the Dogon dama, the funerary rite held to release the spirit of the deceased and restore balance to the community. It belongs to the wider masking tradition of the Dogon of the Bandiagara escarpment, in which each mask form carries its own identity, dance, and role in the performance cycle. This piece was held in the collection of Franco Monti in Milan, where it was published in his 1966 and 1969 books on African masks, and it later passed through Pace African and Oceanic Art in New York. The work has since been sold.
