Bambara mask of an extremely stylized face that includes both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic elements.
Used during initiatory ceremonies by the Ntomo secret society to instruct young men not yet circumcised, this mask of beautiful synthesis, expressiveness, patina and signs of use is accompanied by Dr. Beppe Berna's expertise attesting to its authenticity, as well as relating it to a very similar mask exhibited at the Rietberg Museum in Zurich (catalog no. 80 ) in the exhibition Bamana, un art et un savoir-vivre au Mali, J.P.Colleyn