The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 27, 2023

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.)

John L. Severance Fund 1954.602

Location

108C Akan & Yoruba

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 (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.

Provenance
?-1951
C. Géraudel
1951-1954
Nasli Heeramaneck (Galleries), New York, NY
1954-present
Cleveland Museum of Art by purchase
Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 391 archive.org
Plass, Margaret. 7 Metals of Africa: [a Traveling Exhibtion, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the City Art Museum of St. Louis, the University Museum]. Philadelphia: [publisher not identified], 1959. Reproduced and mentioned: p. 26, cat. F-5
William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962. Mentioned: p. 24, cat. no. 31
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 302 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 302 archive.org
Royal Ontario Museum. Masks: The Many Faces of Man : an Exhibition Presented by the Division of Art and Archaeology of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto Canada. Toronto: The Museum, 1959. Mentioned: p. 42, cat. no. D 21; Reproduced: p. 49, cat. no. D 21
Wixom, WIlliam D. "African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art." African Arts. 10, no. 3. (April 1977) 16-25. Reproduced: p. 17, fig 2; mentioned: p. 19 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 410 archive.org
Vogel, Susan Mullin. Baule: African Art, Western Eyes. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1997. Mentioned: p. 299; Reproduced: p. 201
Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: cat. 18, p. 66 - 67
Exhibition history

Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, 1959, Exhibition of Masks,, February 10-April 5, 1959, cat. D-21, repr. p. 49.

Philadelphia, University Museum, 1959: The University of Pennsylvania, The Seven Metals of Africa, November 12, 1959-Jan. 12, 1960; the Cleveland Museum of Art, June 21-July 24, 1960, no. F-4.

Kansas City, MO, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, The Imagination of Primitive Man, January 18-February 25, 1962, cat. no. 31B.

CMA 1991: Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum, June 7-September 8, 1991.

New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 8/30/97 - 1/4/98. Art Institute of Chicago, 2/14/98 - 5/19/98. NY: The Museum for African Art, 9/11/98 - 1/3/99. Washington, DC: National Museum for African Art, 2/9/99 - 5/16/99, Baule: African Art: Western Eyes. color repr. p. 201.

The Imagination of Primitive Man. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 18-February 25, 1962).

Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).

Baule: African Art/Western Eyes. Yale University Art Gallery (organizer) (August 30, 1997-January 4, 1998); The Art Institute of Chicago (February 14-May 10, 1998).

Baule: African Art/Western Eyes. Museum for African Art, NY (September 11, 1998-January 3, 1999); National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC (February 9-May 16, 1999).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1954.602