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Lot Essay
The Beautiful Woman
In all aspects, this Gu mask reflects characteristics of ideal beauty amongst the Guro. Her skin is red, which is the color associated with women. Her teeth are filed and hair neatly coiffed as sign that she is cultivated, not part of the natural, wild world. Her sloping forehead, gracefully arching brows and downcast eyes further aspects of her refined character as seen in her physical attributes. In her discussion of a very closely related mask of Gu in the collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva, Fasel notes several related attributes of the offered mask which went out of fashion by 1920 in Guro cultural society (in Barbier 1993: 93, text to cat. 153). One such attribute is the scarification on the cheeks. After 1920 this went out of fashion and was never seen. Even by that time, when asked the women described it as purely aesthetic, but other information suggests that in former times its origins did signify particular events of a family’s history, and therefore with symbolic origins or to deceive spirits.
In Guro cultural practice of the last centuries, the mythical woman, or idealized ancestress, Gu, is described as never leaving the sacred grove alone, rather, she is always accompanied by her husband/father. Her teeth are filed in a zigzag pattern, like those of many Guro women born before about 1920. Gu is the wife/daughter of Zamble. She is a beautiful woman: she sings the praises of [her father/husband] Zamble, dances lasciviously and places the stones in the hearth of young wives, whom she protects from any ill will on the part of the family into which they have married (ibid.)
In all aspects, this Gu mask reflects characteristics of ideal beauty amongst the Guro. Her skin is red, which is the color associated with women. Her teeth are filed and hair neatly coiffed as sign that she is cultivated, not part of the natural, wild world. Her sloping forehead, gracefully arching brows and downcast eyes further aspects of her refined character as seen in her physical attributes. In her discussion of a very closely related mask of Gu in the collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva, Fasel notes several related attributes of the offered mask which went out of fashion by 1920 in Guro cultural society (in Barbier 1993: 93, text to cat. 153). One such attribute is the scarification on the cheeks. After 1920 this went out of fashion and was never seen. Even by that time, when asked the women described it as purely aesthetic, but other information suggests that in former times its origins did signify particular events of a family’s history, and therefore with symbolic origins or to deceive spirits.
In Guro cultural practice of the last centuries, the mythical woman, or idealized ancestress, Gu, is described as never leaving the sacred grove alone, rather, she is always accompanied by her husband/father. Her teeth are filed in a zigzag pattern, like those of many Guro women born before about 1920. Gu is the wife/daughter of Zamble. She is a beautiful woman: she sings the praises of [her father/husband] Zamble, dances lasciviously and places the stones in the hearth of young wives, whom she protects from any ill will on the part of the family into which they have married (ibid.)
