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Face plaque with incurved hooks, 19th–early 20th century
Wood, pigment
55.9 x 20.3 x 10.2 cm (22 x 8 x 4 in.)
The Marcia and John Friede Collection, a Promised Gift to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco L05.1.255

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Artist Biography: (none) PROVENANCE: "Walter Randel Collection, New York." (Catalog #128, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 102.) PUBLICATIONS: 2005 - "The style of this 'mask' with its incurved hooks corresponds with that of heads of Romkun human figures. (see pl. 129) and Smidt, 1975, fig. 104. Among the Rao, near neighbors to the Romkun, masks of comparable size without pierced eyes are attached to voice-modifying bamboos, approximately 400 centimeters long (13 feet, 1 1/2 inches). Dirk Smidt states that these sacred male instruments are played at initiation rituals in particular (personal communication). They have no blowing hole on the side. Instead, the player sings or shouts into one end, modifying his voice. This creates the 'illusion that the sounds emanate from nonhuman sources' (Kaeppler and Niles, 1998: 477). Similar long bamboos have been reported from the Banaro, another group in the middle Ramu, located geographically close to the Romkun. (Thurnwald, 1921: Juillerat, 1993; fig. 15 shows such instruments, without masks attached however.) A function of this Romkun mask comparable to that of certain Rao masks (see pl. 127) is hypothetically suggested. The knob-shapped ends may serve for bindings of cane or fiber for attaching the object to the tube. However, long voice-modifying bamboos have, according to Dirk Smidt, not (yet) been reported from the Romkun. there is a comparable object in the Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin, collected in 1930 by Merk-Ikier, which is surmounted by a skull. See Kelm, 1968, vol. 3, no. 239. As the projections of that piece (and no. 238 as well) are disproportionately long, a display inside the cermonial house may be considered. The Philip Goldman Collection, London, included a particularly fine example, and is published in Goldman, 1971, no. 29, and Burland, 1973, no. 84." (Catalog #128, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 102.)

Related Keywords
hooks incurved with plaque Face Francisco San Museums Arts Fine Gift Promised 102 p 2 Volume 2005 Friede John Marcia Jolika Masterpieces Art 128 Catalog York Randel Walter people Romkun Oceania Province Madang Guinea New Papua Melanesia object Ritual pigment Wood 0709200406050563 A361170 L05.1.255 AOA