The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Pendant: Face

Pendant: Face

c. 1930 or earlier
Gold
Overall: 5.8 x 3.9 cm (2 5/16 x 1 9/16 in.)
James Albert Ford Memorial Fund 1942.172
Location: 108C Akan & Yoruba

Description

Gold objects, always cast using the lost-wax method, are the only Baule art forms associated with ancestor spirits. Usually hidden in pots or suitcases, gold adornments are displayed on important occasions such as funerals. They are laid out around the corpse before burial. A widow will wear them on a chain around her neck or attached to her hair at the ceremony signaling the end of mourning.
  • Charles Ratton, Paris, France
    C. Géraudel
    ?-1942
    (Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, NY)
    1942-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH by purchase
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Invoice from Pierre Matisse Gallery, March 6, 1942; Check Form Memorandum with Accessions Committee Meeting 2-13-42. CMA Curatorial File
  • 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, no. 31
    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 20
  • The Imagination of Primitive Man. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 18-February 25, 1962).
  • {{cite web|title=Pendant: Face|url=false|author=|year=c. 1930 or earlier|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1942.172