Hand Carved Vintage Mexican Dance Mask

This colorfully painted, hand carved Mexican dance mask is from the Puebla Valley. Depicting a yellow jaguar, it has large, bulging eyes, erect ears and an open mouth with a protuberant red tongue and genuine boar teeth. The nostrils are pierced through and there is a hole at the top between the ears for hanging.

The jaguar is a popular theme for Mexican artists; in this case, masks like this one are used by the Mixtec people to celebrate the Danza de los Tecuanes (Dance of the Man-Eaters) that tells the story of the hunt for a jaguar that has been killing the farmers' goats. The dancers are accompanied by flutes and drums.

This wooden mask is in excellent condition and the paint is outstanding. It measures 10 inches from top to bottom, 7 inches at the widest point and projects from the wall about 6 inches. It weighs 1 1/4 pounds and displays handsomely, a superb example of Mexican folk art.

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PYH 5398