Description
Feathered Jewels
This particular mask (carved and painted balsa wood) features a natural colour explosion – of feathered jewels, residents of the neo-tropical forest of the southern Pacific Coast watershed of Costa Rica around a solemn, ancestral ‘spirit-visage’ in the lower centre of the compossition. A commonly explored cosmological theme among Brunka artistic expression are the ‘totem’ animals, or naguals, about the visage of an ancestor (shaman/leader).
This Brunka tribal mask carver, resident of Boruca village, achieves a complex composition with a captivating forest biome scene – the focus ultimately being the arrangement of large local and colourful birds over a rainforest background. It’s as though the human aboriginal face in the centre of the piece had all of the wildlife around it as a headdress.
- Tribe: Brunka
- Size & Dimensions: 9″ x 18″ (23cm x 45.5cm)
- Artist: Bernardo Gonzalez
