Eros holding a Mask, 3rd century BC, Greece.

Fausta Vittoria Mengarini (1893-1952) ~ Medusa, bronze bas-relief medallion c1920

Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1976) ....Soleil, 23 carat gold unknow date

ST Rita de Cascia...19th Spanish

Urn with Human Figure, Zapotec, Monte Alban, Mexico 300BCE-200CE

Etruscan art, III-II BC. AD perivisceral anatomical votive, terracotta, Italy, Lazio

Chamunda, the Horrific Destroyer of Evil...India... 10th–11th century

This is a fragment of a full-length sculpture portraying the ferocious Hindu goddess Kali in the form of Chamunda, an epithet derived from her act of decapitating the demons Chanda and Munda. Chamunda embodies bareness and decay. Her hair is piled up into a chignon decorated with a tiara of skulls and a crescent moon. She scowls, baring her teeth, and enormous eyeballs protrude menacingly from sunken sockets in her skeletal face. As a necklace, she wears a snake whose coils echo the rings of decaying flesh that sag beneath her collarbone. Just above her navel on her emaciated torso is a scorpion, a symbol of sickness and death. She presumably once held lethal objects in the hands of her twelve missing arms.

Works of Art ...Mambila... Standing Male Figure... Cameroon

Works of art....Japanese Carved Ivory Okimono... circa 1900

An Unusually Large Japanese Carved Ivory Okimono of a Human Skull
Entwined with snakes and rats
Perhaps made by a particular workshop as an example of excellence and achievement
Meiji period (1868-1912)

the god of death

has passed me over...

autumn dusk

Haiku of Kobayashi Issa

(1763 - 1828)

Works of Art.... Skull and Devil... Japan

Ivory okimono of a scull (tokotsu) entwined with a serpent, Meiji period (1868 - 1912)

worn by members of the underground dokudo (later yakuza), because they believed it brought good luck to gamblers. In the Meiji period the best-known carver of this subject was Gjokuzan.

Carved ivory netsuke signed Chiyuki 之, Japan, Meiji period, turn of the 19th century

 

This  netsuke depicts a typical stylized devil Oni

They come from the Buddhist pantheon and appear in many folk stories. In this comical stylization the umbrella is used instead of the kanabo steel club. The eyes of the devil are made of mother-of-pearl and were inserted by the technique ji ita hamekomi.

Works of Art.... Skull bowl...Tibet c 18/19c

click on image to enlarge

Works of Art.... Songye "Kifwebe" Mask

 African masks will not make you invisible. 

They neither hide, nor diguise, nor mask. 

The gods that founded our earthly life in Africa send masks 

to transmit energy to their children...

from Mirrors by Eduardo Galeano

The Songye tribe is located in the southeastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The most well known and highly sought after mask of the Songye tribe is known as the "Kifwebe" mask. These masks are typically associated with abstract shapes as well as beautiful textured lines and linear scarification. The lines are usually painted with alternating black and white stripes, which give an almost hallucinating effect. Kifwebe masks can be male or female, with crested comb structures identifying male masks, the higher the crest, the more powerful the mask as well as the greater the spiritual power of the dancer. 

more here >

Works of Art... Nkisi Nkondi

Power figures from the Kongo 18th/19th Century

The Kongo peoples live in southwestern Zaire and Angola. In a few traditional Kongo villages a religious specialist, who is also a healer and a legal expert, takes care of the spiritual and physical needs of the villagers with the assistance of a powerful carved figure, called ankisi nkondi. Popularly known as nail figures, these sculptures were used for a wide variety of purposes, including to protect the village, to prove guilt or innocence, to heal the sick, to end disasters, to bring revenge, and to settle legal disputes.

Works of art.... headcrest...

A Yoruba Egungun headcrest

Works of Art...phallic amulet....

Privately commissioned made in Italy circa 1950's

Works of Art...Moche pottery...Peru...100-800 AD

The incredible detail in Moche ceramics could lend to the fact that they served as a sort of didactic model. Older generations could pass down general knowledge about reciprocity and incorporation to younger generations through these veristic portrayals. These sex pots could teach about procreation, sexual pleasure, cultural and social norms, a sort of immortality, and transfer of life and souls, transformation, and the relationship between the two cyclical views of nature and life.

Works of art...Egypt...Cartonage women...Dynasty 22-24..

Works of art...Rampant Lions ..Vietnam Cham Period..

Works of art.. Ashanti Bird

 

Aquamanile... Aristotle Ridden by Phyllis

Aquamanile: Aristotle Ridden by Phyllis, ca. 1400
Southern Netherlands or Eastern France (Lorraine)
Bronze

*An aquamanile is a vessel for pouring water used in the ritual of washing hands in both religious and secular contexts—by the priest before Mass and in a private household before a meal. The subject of this celebrated example is the moralizing legend of Aristotle and Phyllis, which achieved widespread popularity in the late Middle Ages. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher and tutor of Alexander the Great, allowed himself to be humiliated by the seductive Phyllis, Alexander's favorite courtesan, as a lesson to the young ruler, who had succumbed to her wiles and neglected the affairs of state. Encouraging Alexander to witness his folly, Aristotle explained that if he, an old man, could be so easily deceived, the potential consequences for a young man were even more perilous. The ribald subject indicates that this aquamanile was made for a domestic setting, where it would have doubled as an object of entertainment for guests at the table.