Cleveland Museum of Art

Pendant: Face

Date

1900s

Medium

Gold

Culture

Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, possibly Baule-style goldsmith

Department

African Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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 ( aja ) 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. 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.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.