Brag mask Sepik River mouth stylistic area, Eastern Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea New Guinea Wood, ochre pigment Presumed time: first half of 20th century Height: 60cm Provenance: - Hermann Mark Lissauer Collection Melbourne - Crispin Howarth1 Collection, Canberra (by donation of the above) Hermann Mark Lissauer (1923-2016), a sugarcane and rattan industrialist from Angoram on the Sepik River from the 1950s to the early 1970s, was curious about artistic creation and made several expeditions to collect a large number of objects, some of which were kept in his private collection, such as this mask, and others sold to major collections and museums around the world, including the Rockefeller Museum and the British Museum. Imposing in size, the shapes and contours, enhanced by the brownish-red patina, magnify the mask's intense presence and expressive power. Oval in shape, the face is surrounded by a fretworked, jagged motif that borders the tared lower part. The depth and liveliness of the penetrating gaze are rendered by the contours of the eyelids, the flattened dark circles, the sharply defined curved eyebrow arches and the small, circular, hollowed-out pupils. A small, pierced mouth is set beneath an insect-trunk nose at the tip, with a pierced septum. The long, curved nose indicates that this mask does not represent a human figure, but a spirit figure known as a brag. It was not worn, but attached to a large bamboo superstructure that rose more than three meters above the dancer's head. Rectangular holes were drilled around the periphery for the attachment of a costume. A gripping hole also enabled the mask to be attached to a mobile support, leaning against a wall inside the ceremonial house, the place governing the spiritual world.