BOLIVIA-PERU, Andes, mid-20th century - Lot 94

BOLIVIA-PERU, Andes, mid-20th century Set of two zoomorphic masks worn during popular and ritual dances. The first features a face reminiscent of a deer, characterized by small curved horns, high ears and wide-open eyes, giving it a youthful, open expression. The second mask suggests an animal of the peccary or wild pig type, with a rounded snout, a closed mouth and a more concentrated, hieratic expression. Both faces are treated with great clarity of volume, accentuating the deliberately porous boundary between the human figure and the animal world. Wood, honey patina, marks of use. These masks are part of the continuity of Andean masked traditions, heirs to pre-Columbian cosmologies based on the symbiosis between man, animal and natural forces. Used in high-altitude collective dances, they carry on an ancient symbolic language in which the animal embodies vital, protective or fertilizing qualities, still active in Cordillera cultures.