Punu Wood Mask, Gabon, Based

White-faced and downcast, she dances above the crowd on stilts.

So goes the Punu tradition of masks, carved in Gabon and danced at funerals and other important occasions, celebrated as embodiments of idealized feminine beauty. This one, wood, dates to the 20th century. The face is whitened with kaolin, a pigment associated with the spirit world.

Narrow eyes beneath finely arched brows. A raised grid of diamond scarification marks on the forehead. Darkened full lips. Above, the dark coiffure rises in a central crest between two side lobes. Nearly eleven inches tall, the pigment worn and the edges aged, on a custom stand.

Hang the lights low.