Cleveland Museum of Art

Portrait Mask (mblo)

Date: early to mid-1900s
Medium: Wood and paint
Culture: Africa, West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Baule-style carver
Department: African Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

Male and female mblo masks, highly valued by the Baule people, are used in a variety of entertainment dances. Wearing elaborate coiffures and delicate facial scars, they are seen as portraits of known individuals. Their idealized rendering embodies core traits of Baule aesthetics, including lustrous skin, a high forehead, and downcast eyes, signs of good health, intelligence, and admiration, respectively. This may be a portrait mask of a respected female elder.

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