Important idimu mask - Lot 16

Important idimu mask Lega cultural area, D.R. Congo Wood with superb old patina, original and used, kaolin H. 30 cm Provenance: Louis de Vriese Collection, Brussels - Louis de Vriese Collection, Brussels - Jean Willy Mestach Collection, Brussels (1926-2014) - Collection of Comte Baudouin de Grunne, Brussels, acquired before 1970 - de Quay-Lombrail sale, April 23, 1997, lot 114 - Cazeau Collection, Paris Publication and exhibition : - Arts primitifs d'Afrique et d'Océanie, Théâtre national de Belgique, 1971, no. 49 Within Lega society, the bwami association is a mixed, hierarchically structured brotherhood with its own initiation rites. The bwami is involved in all the political, cultural, legal and religious spheres of the Lega world, which it organizes harmoniously. Its aims are humanistic, enabling the transmission of knowledge and traditions. While almost the entire Lega population was a member, only a handful of individuals reached the highest ranks. Numerous consecrated objects, the masengo, were used during the rituals associated with the passage of ranks. These masengo came in a wide variety of types. They included figurines, headdresses, utensils such as spoons and seats, and masks. Mostly made of wood and belonging to an entire bwami association, the large idimu masks appeared at the highest yananio and kindi ranks. On these occasions, they were displayed, worn and handled at length, and served as the basis for aphorisms dispensing moral and ethical precepts to future rulers. The idimu mask in the Cazeau collection borrows its smooth, naked forehead, perfectly defined arches, geometrically pure straight nose and kaolin covering from the great classical Lega style. However, the sculptor's exceptional talent shines through in the treatment of the lower face. Harmoniously carried forward in a small mound, the territory of the mouth asserts itself plastically to support the word of the ancestors that flows from it. The genius of this composition was not lost on Philippe Cazeau, an acknowledged connoisseur of twentieth-century painting, who declared that with this mask he had finally found his "demoiselle d'Avignon".