Surgeon’ Masks

Surgeon's Mask

This large mask, they are usually just under two feet high, was only worn by the "surgeon" during boys' initiation rites, never in a public performance. Relatively few were ever made but a fair number of them survived because they were highly valued by collectors. Most are in private collections and not available for public viewing. Spiked tops, often "blood stained", gritted teeth and heavy lidded eyes that reputedly only allow the wearer to look down at what he is doing and not have to see the boy's anguish, are all typical features. Surgeon's masks are best viewed in the context of the setting where they were worn with the surgeon sitting on a high, spiked back chair and wearing a dark cloak with everything illuminated by a low fire in front. The surgeon is usually a man with a stern, menacing voice as well as a deft hand and who is not known to the boys he initiates. The mask shown is quite typical but is not a particularly good specimen. The artist, Rohban who carved this replica from a shoddily repaired original wanted to make some improvements on the basis of a photograph of a better one, but with some difficulty I managed to restrain him.