Pendant
Artist: Baule People
Date: early 20th century
Dimensions:
1 15/16 x 1 3/4 in. (5 x 4.4 cm);
weight: 1.8 oz. (51 g)
Medium: cast and tooled gold
Place of Origin: Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire)
Classification: Metalwork
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1977.72
Label Text:Skillfully cast, this gold pendant represents the face of an elderly man with braided hair and beard. The raised lines between the eyes and at the temples are cosmetic scarifcation marks. Each Baule head pendant is individualized. They are thought to be idealized portraits of friends or lovers. Baule people give a sacred value to gold. For them, it is like a god and is treated as an heirloom that evokes the presence of the ancestors. Baule families keep gold in ancestral treasuries called aja, which represent the ancestors and serve as the “soul” of the family.
On view
In Collection(s)