Tjakil

Carved and painted wooden mask. The right side of the face is painted white, the left red.There are six gold upper teeth and eight gold lower teeth. The lower jaw, which juts out, has two gold teeth that protrude as fangs. There is a gap in the mouth which pierces the mask, through which the tongue is carved in between the two fangs. The chin and the lower jaw are the most prominently protruding parts of the mask. A piece of black fabric above the upper lip indicates a moustache, attached with a metal pin at either end. The nose is pierced below to indicate two nostrils. The end of the nose curves slightly upwards. Along the bridge of the nose is a gilt decoration, and also at the edge of each eye. At the bottom of the eyes the mask is pierced to allow the wearer to see. These long holes follow the line of the eyes, which is echoed in gold, white and red bands below the eyeball, indicated in black. The eyes are rolled up. The eyebrows are painted gold and echo the shape of the upper outline of the eye. There is a gold protruding embellishment at the centre of the forehead, perhaps indicating jewellery. Six locks of hair are carved, three on each side above the forehead. The hair is black but each lock is decorated with a gold, circular punctuation. Hair is indicated all around the edges of the face with very fine strokes of black paint. There are more strokes of paint at the bottom of the mask in the centre of the chin pointing towards the front indicating a beard. All decorative hair takes the same form at each side of the face. On each cheek is a gold shape resembling a leaf or a tear on its side. On the inside is the leather strap which the dancer would grip with his teeth to secure the mask.

Collection Information

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