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Source Description
Cast using the lost-wax method, gold objects are the only Baule art forms associated with ancestral spirits. Usually stored in suitcases or pots, a collection of gold adornments (<em>aja</em>) are displayed on important occasions such as funerals. They are laid out around the corpse before burial as a sign of respect and their family's wealth. Faces such as this pendant are said to be idealized portraits of friends or lovers. This depiction of a man has a beard and elaborately styled hair.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
132047
label
Pendant: Face
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
132047
contentType
object
title
Pendant: Face
description
Cast using the lost-wax method, gold objects are the only Baule art forms associated with ancestral spirits. Usually stored in suitcases or pots, a collection of gold adornments (<em>aja</em>) are displayed on important occasions such as funerals. They are laid out around the corpse before burial as a sign of respect and their family's wealth. Faces such as this pendant are said to be idealized portraits of friends or lovers. This depiction of a man has a beard and elaborately styled hair.
date
1900s
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60761088
genreSpecific
Jewelry
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 7.6 x 5 cm (3 x 1 15/16 in.)
cul
Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, possibly Baule-style goldsmith
accession
1954.602
Source extras
tec
Gold
tombstone
Pendant: Face, 1900s. Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, possibly Baule-style goldsmith. Gold; overall: 7.6 x 5 cm (3 x 1 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1954.602
collection
African Art
didYouKnow
The raised texture seen on the forehead are remains of the gating technique used to introduce molten metal into the mold during lost-wax casting and indicate that the surface was not highly finished after casting.
citations
citation
Chauvet, Stephen. "Objets d'or, de bronze et d'ivoire dans l'art nègre." Cahiers d'Art 5 (1930): 33-40, fig.15.
citation
Drewal, Henry John. African Art: A Brief Guide to the Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1989, fig.23.
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 391
citation
Plass, Margaret. <em>7 Metals of Africa: [a Traveling Exhibtion, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the City Art Museum of St. Louis, the University Museum]</em>. Philadelphia: [publisher not identified], 1959.
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: p. 26, cat. F-5
citation
William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. <em>The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World.</em> Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 24, cat. no. 31
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 302
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 302
citation
Royal Ontario Museum. <em>Masks: The Many Faces of Man : an Exhibition Presented by the Division of Art and Archaeology of the Royal Ontario Museum</em>, Toronto Canada. Toronto: The Museum, 1959.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 42, cat. no. D 21; Reproduced: p. 49, cat. no. D 21
citation
Wixom, WIlliam D. "African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art." <em>African Arts</em>. 10, no. 3. (April 1977) 16-25.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 17, fig 2; mentioned: p. 19
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 410
citation
Vogel, Susan Mullin. <em>Baule: African Art, Western Eyes</em>. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1997.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 299; Reproduced: p. 201
citation
Petridis, Constantijn. <em>South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. </em>Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. 18, p. 66 - 67
creditline
John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:48:18.113000
sourceId
132047
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
Gold
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
7e95150bb10dcaa1